Malls and more spur job growth

When the Barnes & Noble on Fifth Avenue in Manhattan closed in January 2014, Esther Alvarez was out of work. But after several months of looking for a job, she landed at the Sports Authority in the recently opened Broadway Plaza mall on Broadway between West 230th and West 231st streets.

“I live in the Bronx, so I saw an ad that they were hiring and it worked out,” she explained. 

Ms. Alvarez, 28, is working part-time while she attends school at Borough of Manhattan Community College. 

Her supervisor Elijah Gual, 20, said he got this job through Workforce1, a city program that helps match job seekers and employers. Mr. Gual, for one, is happy with his placement.  

“I love my job,” he kept saying in an interview.

Mr. Gual and Ms. Alvarez said most people at the store and the rest of the mall found out about their new jobs through Workforce1. 

The Bronx has hit its lowest unemployment rate since 2008, thanks in part to new retail centers like Broadway Plaza. The jobless rate was 8 percent in the second quarter of 2015, according to a new report from the city comptroller’s office. This time last year, it was 9.7 percent. The new data showed the lowest unemployment rate in all five boroughs since the financial crash of 2008.

“We actually just hired a new sales associate,” said Mr. Gual. 

The drop boils down to continued growth in three industries, according to Lehman College economics professor Dene Hurley: all that new retail, healthcare and wholesale food distribution. Ms. Hurley attributed that growth to the borough’s relatively cheap rents and accessibility. 

“There is huge demand for health services majors at Lehman,” Ms. Hurley said, crediting the interest to the fact that hospitals and other healthcare facilities are the major employers in the Bronx. 

Between the vast Hunts Point produce market and the New Fulton Fish Market, the Bronx dominates the city’s wholesale food industry.