Job loss less severe than office market suggests

Fewer jobs have been lost in Manhattan this year than the amount of office space on the market would indicate. Nearly 1.1 million square feet of sublease space came on the market in Manhattan in September, most of it in Midtown, according to the September employment report from Eastern Consolidated released yesterday. Since the beginning of the year, over five million square feet of sublease space was added to the market as of the end of September. If each employee in Manhattan worked in 250 square feet of sublease office space, that would be the equivalent of more than 20,000 office jobs lost, the report said. But through the end of September, the office sector actually gained 1,100 jobs this year. TRD