If you can make it here, you can make it anywhere — as a waiter.
Restaurants are the top employers in Manhattan, with 84,653 table-slingers catering to diners in the $2.3 billion industry, according to surprising findings by the US Census that show how New York works.
Colleges, lawyers offices, investment services and hotels ranked in the top 10 Manhattan industries, according to the County Business Patterns survey, which measures private-sector employment and does not include public workers like teachers, police, firefighters and government.
THRIVING INDUSTRIES IN QUEENS AND BROOKLYN
THRIVING INDUSTRIES IN MANHATTAN, THE BRONX AND STATEN ISLAND
As for top payroll, that honor unsurprisingly went to Wall Street honchos. Investment banking and security- trading firms paid out $19.3 billion annually, followed by stock portfolio managers ($14 billion) and bank corporate headquarters ($10 billion).
Citywide, hospitals employed the most people, with 161,538, followed by home health-care services (112,998) and restaurants (110,923).
Still, the Big Apple needs a jobs jolt.
Citywide unemployment hovered at 8.7 percent last month. That’s below the national average of 9.2 percent, but the city’s better number was partly fueled by job seekers dropping out of the market, said James Brown, a state Labor Department analyst.
Gov. Cuomo has pledged a rescue. Last week, the governor announced an international ad campaign to lure both tourists and CEOs to New York. His goal for the next six months, Cuomo said, is “jobs, jobs, jobs.”
How can he help? The construction industry has remained weak in the city, as has the publishing field, Brown said, and could use a jolt. Wall Street has also moved a lot of its back-office operations out of the Big Apple because of high taxation, and artists have fled to cities with cheaper rents, he added.
Here are some of the employment findings, as broken down by ZIP code.
QUEENS
Unemployment: 7.8%
Average private-sector wage for those working in the borough:$43,372
Median household income …… $54,870
Top employers
1. Home health-careservices ……………………24,303
2. Air transportation …….23,640
3. Hospitals…………………..20,581
4. Fast-food restaurants and pizzerias …………….11,008
5. Supermarkets …………..10,992
BROOKLYN
Unemployment: 9.3%
Average private-sector wage for those working in the borough: $38,434
Median household income …… $42,894
Top employers
1. Hospitals …………………….43,303
2. Home health-care services ……………………..37,992
3. Elderly services …………..14,516
4. Elementary and secondary schools ………13,649
5. Supermarkets …………….11,384
MANHATTAN
Unemployment: 7.1%
Average private-sector wage for those working in the borough: $108,615
Median household income …… $66,818
Top employers
1. Restaurants …………………84,653
2. Colleges ……………………..79,681
3. Lawyers offices …………..74,309
4. Hospitals …………………….67,893
5. Investment banks and security dealers …………..60,025
THE BRONX
Unemployment: 11.7%
Average private-sector wage for those working in the borough: $42,603
Median household income – $33,206
Top employers
1. Hospitals – 29,761
2. Nursing homes – 13,363
3. Home health care services – 11,282
STATEN ISLAND
Unemployment: 7.8%
Average private-sector wage for those working in the borough: $38,834
Median household income – $71,206
Top employers
1. Supermarkets – 3,755
2. Doctors offices – 3,731