Tuesday, April 7, 2026
In today’s digest, World Cup transit plans, a new NYC office, and the latest tech jobs numbers. 💼
But first: NYC AI Demos is back on April 23! The largest monthly AI demo series on the East Coast, from Tech:NYC, Pensar, and Two Trees, returns to the Refinery at Domino.
This edition focuses on the AI startup stack — spotlighting the tools, infrastructure, and products powering the modern startup — and features demos from Justworks, Cognition, Norm Ai, and others to be announced soon. Register here.
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Mayor Zohran Mamdani released NYC’s first-ever racial equity plan yesterday, aimed at combating racial disparities across the city. 🗽 (Gothamist)
The plan includes strategies for improving pay equity in city roles, providing anti-racism training for city staff, and directing more resources to underserved communities.
During FIFA World Cup matches at MetLife Stadium this summer, parts of Penn Station will be closed for several hours to everyone but ticketholders. 🎟️ (6sqft)
While the final plan hasn’t been released quite yet, NJ Transit commuters reportedly won’t be able to travel on New Jersey-bound trains from Penn for four hours before the start of the eight matches.
There’s a Larry David joke in here somewhere: The Mamdani administration launched the Office of Curb Management today dedicated to handling New York City’s 6,300 miles of curbside lanes. 🛣️ (Streetsblog NYC)
The office will be tasked with expanding loading zones, designating pickup and drop-off areas, and promoting faster turnover at the curb.
👑 Referral royalty: Big thanks to Joshe Ordonez, Michael Mallett, and Terezija Miskic for referring subscribers to the Tech:NYC Digest this week! Join them and win swag by participating in our referral program — details at the end of this email.
In other reading:
The New Directors/New Films festival hits New York, and brings Charli XCX along with it (Gothamist)
Woman gives birth mid-flight en route to New York City (PIX 11)
20 NYC dive bars we love (Conde Nast Traveler)
Tech:NYC is accepting Digest sponsorship inquiries!
If you or your company are a good fit for our audience of 12.5k highly engaged NYC tech leaders (55% open rate!), fill out our form here and we’ll be in touch. 🤝
March’s Tech Jobs Report Is a Mixed Bag
The tech job market is sending mixed signals: layoffs ticked up in March, but hiring demand is building back — especially in places like the Big Apple. 🍎
Here’s what the latest data shows.
Layoffs hit, but not evenly: Tech industry employment dropped by about 15,000 jobs in March, with IT and custom software services taking the biggest hit (down 13,200 jobs after gains in February).
Tech occupation employment across all sectors fell by 118,000, while the unemployment rate edged up to 3.9%. 📉
But wait! Hiring demand is climbing again: There were more than 537,000 tech job postings in March — including 254,000 new ones — up 9.7% month-over-month and 8.9% year-over-year.
Sectors like real estate (+56.2%), retail (+27.1%), and finance (+19%) saw some of the biggest jumps in tech hiring demand. 📈
New York remains a hiring heavyweight: NYC had the highest volume of tech job postings among major metros, with 16,987 postings in March — up from February.
It also ranked No. 1 for remote tech job postings, reinforcing its role as both a local and distributed tech hub. 🗽
Shameless plug: Tech:NYC hosts a Jobs Board, powered by Getro, currently featuring 4,800+ NYC tech jobs from 400+ companies.
AI hiring is spreading beyond just “AI jobs”: Employers are hiring across a mix of roles — from software engineers (54k+ postings) to AI engineers (11k+) — to support broader AI adoption.
New York accounted for 10% of hiring for dedicated AI job titles, the highest share among metros tracked. 🤖
Experience still matters, but there’s a spread: Twenty-seven percent of postings target mid-career workers (4-7 years experience), while 20% are open to early-career talent (0-3 years).
Another 35% of postings don’t specify experience at all, suggesting flexibility in hiring criteria. 🧠
🏢 Where the jobs at:
Professional and technical services led hiring (69k postings), followed by manufacturing (33k) and admin/support services (29k).
New York also ranks among the top metros for tech hiring in manufacturing — a signal that “tech jobs” increasingly live outside traditional tech companies.
In other reading:
This is where all the jobs are (Wall Street Journal)
Nobody knows how to file taxes on prediction market wins (WIRED)
Five trends from AARP report show how older adults are using tech at home (Forbes)
Welcome to our weekly jobs section, where we spotlight a selection of the NYC tech jobs from Tech:NYC’s Jobs Board — all recently posted. 🔥
Today, we’re highlighting a few HR and people roles that caught our eye:
Head of Talent Discovery — MongoDB ($104k-$204k / year + equity): You’ll bridge the gap between high-level business objectives and tactical excellence, and serve as a manager of managers, empowering your broader team to navigate ambiguity and pivot quickly to meet the needs of a scaling business. Apply here.
VP, People (Field) — CLEAR ($200k-$275k / year): You’ll partner with leaders across CLEAR’s Aviation business to retain, develop, and motivate talent. Apply here.
Director of Talent — Flora: You’ll execute — running recruiting, onboarding new hires, managing office logistics, and shaping culture — while strategically designing the systems that will scale as FLORA grows. Apply here.
Modus, an NYC-based audit tech platform that buys majority stakes in advisory entities affiliated with accounting firms, raised $85 million in seed and Series A funding. Lightspeed led the round, joined by Comma Capital and Garry Tan.
Natter, an NYC-based AI conversation intelligence platform, raised $23 million in funding. Renegade Partners led the round and was joined by Costanoa, Kindred Capital, Rackhouse Ventures, Village Global, and Asymmetric Capital Partners.
Featured events:
⭐ April 8: Brand Discovery and Engagement in the age of AI and AEO with Perpetual and Webflow, a conversation on AI, Answer Engine Optimization, and the future of brand discovery, featuring a keynote from Webflow’s Guy Yalif, a fireside chat, and networking with NYC digital leaders. Register here.
⭐ April 23: NYC AI Demos, from Tech:NYC, Pensar, and Two Trees, this month spotlighting the AI startup stack with demos from Justworks, Cognition, Norm Ai, and more to be announced soon. Register here.
Other great events:
April 8: Tech Week New Hosts Office Hours, a free webinar for anyone interested in hosting at NY Tech Week (June 1-7), covering how to submit, key dates, and tips for making their NY Tech Week event great. Register here.
April 9: IBM Ventures Startup Mixer & Masters Viewing @ MSP, a pop-up celebration of the Masters and a chance for sports tech startups to connect with IBM Ventures. Register here.
April 14: Govtech Happy Hour, for govtech founders and operators, civil servants past and present, and policy enthusiasts. Register here.
April 15: Founder Breakfast, a curated breakfast for VC-backed founders, ideally those who have raised a Seed round. Register here.
April 16: Founder Poker Night, for founders to play some cards and meet other founders who are also building. Register here.
April 16: NYC Founders Breakfast + Pitch Workshop, an exclusive breakfast for venture-backed founders building in NYC who want stronger fundraising positioning and meaningful peer connection. Register here.
April 16: Construction Robotics Summit: From Dirt to Data, bringing together the builders, technologists, and decision-makers advancing robotics across the built environment. Register here.
April 17: Founder Breakfast, a curated breakfast for VC-backed founders, ideally at Seed and Series A building in AI. Register here.
April 18: Enterprise Agent Jam NYC, where you’ll have six hours to build an AI agent from scratch. Register here.
April 20: Communicating Your Value with Confidence, an interactive workshop where you’ll learn a practical, repeatable approach to communicating your value with clarity and confidence. Register here.
April 23: Tech-Driven, Human-Centered: Leading Through Disruption, a panel discussion at the Columbia School of Professional Studies where leaders from technology and business will discuss what innovations demand of managers and teams in real time. Register here.
April 24: Tech Happy Hour, a chance to connect with the NYC tech and startup community to discover shared interests, explore areas for collaboration, and find your next co-founder or key hire. Register here.
April 27: NYC Fintech Coffee, for fintech founders, investors, and enthusiasts to gather around and talk everything fintech. Register here.
April 28: Rillet Recon, a full-day program on the future of AI-native finance. Register here.
April 30: Multi-Agent Hackathon, a hackathon to explore agents that observe a shared space, self-select what they care about, and coordinate without a manager. Register here.
April 30: The Executive Night, a gathering of ~30 Series A+ founders and investors. Register here.
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