With 14,000 employees, Columbia is the seventh largest private employer in the city. Together with the city’s other independent colleges and universities, Columbia generates some $9.1 billion in direct spending and $21.2 billion in economic activity. Consequently, Columbia and the city’s other institutions of higher education are not only vital intellectual powerhouses, but also potent sources of economic growth and opportunity.

Generating Jobs Across the Income Spectrum
Columbia continues to be a source of reliable, career-oriented jobs for a wide spectrum of New Yorkers. The University employs more than just neuroscience PhDs on the one hand and unskilled, entry-level workers on the other. Two-thirds of positions at the University involve support at every level: as accountants and human resource professionals, administrative and clerical staff, lab technicians, and trained electricians. This spectrum of employment reflects the traditional mix of jobs seen in New York’s days as a manufacturing center, with many mid-level positions, not just extreme concentrations of jobs at the top and the bottom.

Stimulating Future Growth in Upper Manhattan
Columbia’s planned expansion into Manhattanville would continue to drive growth in high-quality jobs, both directly and indirectly. The plan itself is expected to create 6,000 new jobs for a wide range of positions, including entry-level jobs and those for people with a variety of experience levels. Right now, nearly 30 percent of Columbia’s support and administrative staff live in Upper Manhattan. All of these jobs include competitive health insurance and retirement benefits.

Read more about Columbia’s plans for Manhattanville >

Supporting Employment in the Community
As part of Columbia’s commitment to strengthening ties with the diverse residents and institutions in Upper Manhattan, Columbia opened an Employment Information Center at 3180 Broadway at 125th Street in 2004. The center provides assistance in job searches at the University and strives to boost employment opportunities for residents of northern Manhattan.

Find out more about employment at Columbia >

From 2002 to 2005, more than $112 million—about 36 percent—of Columbia’s major construction contracts went to minority-, women- or locally owned (MWL) firms. In fiscal year 2006, $65 million in construction and repair contracts—more than one-third of the total—went to MWL companies. Each year, for the next twenty-two years, the Manhattanville construction plan is estimated to require at least 1,200 construction-related employees. An additional 650 jobs are also expected to be created in stores, restaurants, and other new businesses to be located on the ground floors of new University buildings. The new construction would generate an estimated $5 billion in compensation for New York workers and would create roughly $11 billion in local economic activity. During the next twenty-five years, New York City and State would also receive an additional $430 million in tax revenue.