The mayor has committed to wanting “all New Yorkers to succeed” — including a certain billionaire.

“That also includes Ken Griffin, who is a major employer in our city,” Mayor Zohran Mamdani said last week. “That does not negate the fact, however, that our tax system is fundamentally broken.”

What You Need To Know

Since Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s election, major CEOs have talked about an anti-business climate

Some are expanding in other parts of the country

Even so, New York City continues to add jobs in finance 

Continued fallout from a viral video where the mayor applauds the taxing of luxury second homes in the five boroughs.

“We will add far more jobs in Miami over the next decade as an immediate and direct consequence of the mayor’s poor decision here with respect to posting that video,” Griffin told CNBC last week.

It’s resulted in at least one company, the hedge fund Citadel, to say it will be expanding elsewhere.

For weeks, since the mayor took office, critics have charged that the wealthy and elite will take their business to friendlier climates.

“The tax environment and the rhetoric are very concerning, and those do push people to look elsewhere,” said Steven Fulop of the Partnership for New York City.

JPMorgan Chase, while still headquartered here, now employs more people in Texas than in New York City. Reports say private equity firm Apollo Global Management will open a second headquarters in the south.

But does this really mean that New York City is losing jobs? NY1 crunched the numbers.

In total, according to the state labor department, private sector employment dipped slightly since last March in the five boroughs. But some economists attribute that small drop to a reapportionment of health care jobs from the city to upstate — not a severe dip in employment.

“We haven’t really seen any decline in the finance sector. In fact, securities employment in New York City is at an all-time high,” said James Parrott of the Center for New York City Affairs at the New School.

Jobs in the finance and insurance industry, according to the state, have remained steady. In 2025, they grew by nearly 3%.

Some tech job categories grew by a similar margin in 2025, although more recent data shows them dipping slightly.

“Despite these claims that businesses have been relocating, it just hasn’t shown up in the numbers,” Parrott said.

Notices filed with the state show layoffs at several big companies in the first months of this year. Citibank cut 265 employees at its Greenwich Street headquarters, a tiny fraction of the workers there and not tied to Mamdani’s actions.

Amazon shrank its workforce at its New York City office by 135, according to the state. That, too, a source says, wasn’t related to Mamdani.

So impact so far is minimal, at least by the numbers. Although critics will say it’s just the beginning.

“It takes a lot to push these people out, that’s the truth,” Fulop said. “But there is a tripwire at some point. And I think we are getting closer to a place where people say, ‘Is it worth me investing here when other people want me to be there more?’”