NYC real estate employment nears 2008 peak

New York City real estate firms are opening up their wallets and hiring in greater numbers, the Wall Street Journal reported.

The number of real estate jobs in the city jumped to 122,000 in July, a year-over-year increase of 2.9 percent, according to New York State Department of Labor data seen by the newspaper.

The new numbers almost match up to the recent June 2008 peak of 123,000, the data show. Since 2009, the number of people working in real estate in the city has clocked in at around 118,000.

The number of both residential and commercial brokers has spiked by 5 percent, the department data show. Leaders of both commercial and residential brokerages are upping their hiring, they told the Journal.

“Our firm has been on a big hiring spree,” Massey Knakal Realty Services’ CEO Paul Massey told the Journal, and added that he had made about 30 hires in the last six months.

People working in other careers are making a jump to real estate, Citi Habitats president Gary Malin told the Journal, as “the rent market is very high, the sales market is very high, and the environment is very vibrant right now.”

Malin added that the firm – which has undergone a recent shake-up — launched a new development team in April and is hiring agents across the city. [WSJ] – Hiten Samtani