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Tech companies are vibing in Brooklyn, but how big will the sector get?

Silicon Alley long ago ceased to be a useful way to describe the tech sector in New York. Tech firms are located downtown, in Midtown, frankly all around town if town means Manhattan and now Brooklyn. Tech jobs in Brooklyn increased 57% between the end of the recession in 2009 and last year, ending at just under 10,000, according to a study of the Brooklyn economy published earlier this month by New York State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli. Even by the standards of the fast-growing sector, that is an impressive increase.

Tech in Brooklyn is also somewhat different than tech elsewhere in New York especially at the Brooklyn Navy Yard, where well more than 100 tech companies are making things not just apps or software or cloud programs. Navy Yard President David Ehrenberg sees it as the Yard’s mission to recruit companies that will create a wide range of jobs that will be filled by people with more basic skills than the engineers and college-education marketers that work at most Manhattan tech companies. Duggal, the once famous film company, now employs more than 300 people in their Navy Yard digital operation in a wide variety of tasks.

Downtown Brooklyn is already another major hub, based in large part on its 11 colleges and universities and 45,000 students. A study by the Downtown Brooklyn Partnership found that TAMI jobs (tech, advertising, media and information) doubled between 2010 and 2015 to 4,900. Online media can’t resist the vibe with Gimlet Media and Slate there.

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