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The unemployment rate in New York City has been falling steadily as the effects of the Great Recession have worn off, with the total number of jobs reaching its highest level since August 2008, according to the Department of Labor. Overall, the jobless rate was at 6.8 percent in September, falling below 7 percent for the first time since late 2008.

The technology sector has driven much of that growth, with IT consulting and systems design employment growing by nearly 47 percent in the last five years. Of the 75,000 IT-related jobs that the city has added since 2009, some have come from tech giants such as Google, which has expanded its New York headquarters with about 4,000 new positions, but many more are being added by startups and other small software developing companies.

In the fast-moving industry, businesses can grow exponentially in the space of a few months — Compass, which creates real estate software, tripled in size from 60 to 180 employees in just six months and is moving to a new Union Square office, and that's just one of many success stories.

"New York has gone from a standing start to comparison with Silicon Valley," said New York City Economic Development Corporation chief economist Michael Moynihan. "And it's not just a technology story, but technology used in so many other sectors."

As this blog has reported, developers are benefiting from increasingly accessible and affordable technology, which makes it easier for creative entrepreneurs to carve out a niche in a very competitive industry. With the financial recovery, startups also have readier access to accelerators and a growing number of networking events to help them thrive.

The Connecticut Technology Council has announced its list of "Companies to Watch" in 2014. The companies, most of which are in the startup phase, were chosen for their potential for future growth. The Council will recognize them at its Innovation Summit, which will take place at the Oakdale Theatre in Wallingford on November 12. There, they will have the chance to make pitches to angel investors and venture capitalists and meet one-on-one with successful entrepreneurs.

Among the "mentors" who will be in attendance will be Michael Boccardi, CEO of managed IT services company Cervalis, and Devon Brady, a senior manager at Ernst & Young. They will provide guidance to up-and-coming entrepreneurs in a variety of business areas: financial, human resources, legal, marketing, sales and technical. Most of the selected companies are in the life sciences, software development or telecommunications industries, with a handful in other sectors such as advanced manufacturing and energy.

The Innovation Summit is Connecticut's largest IT networking event, bringing together new players with established companies and potential investors to drive the state's science and tech sectors forward. In addition to an expo and showcase, there will be a "Pitch Fest," an increasingly popular event where entrepreneurs have three minutes to deliver a pitch and are graded by a panel of judges, who also provide tips for improvement.

Connecticut has seen a number of public and private initiatives in recent times that aim to keep the state competitive and even make it a leader in these dynamic industries. Local managed IT services software developers can help the region's companies with their IT needs, providing custom software to help them streamline their business processes.

The Department of Labor has awarded a four-year, $5.5 million grant to the Eastern Connecticut Workforce Investment Board (EWIB) and the Workforce Alliance to train 567 unemployed workers and help them find jobs in high-tech fields. The grant was awarded after Connecticut exceeded the aims of an earlier phase of training as part of the Labor Department's Ready to Work program.

The initiative's aim is to give American workers the necessary training to take specialized jobs that would otherwise go to immigrants. The program is funded by H-1B visa fees, which are paid by companies that hire foreign nationals for jobs that require at least a bachelor's degree, especially those in STEM fields.

"This grant does more than put people back to work," said Workforce Alliance president William P. Villano. "It builds Connecticut's competitive advantage in high-skilled industries by targeting the skills gap in important sectors of the regional economy. All participants will be trained for and placed in career-path positions in one of the targeted fields."

Among the participating organizations are the Universities of Connecticut and New Haven, Connecticut's four state universities and 12 community colleges and over 100 private firms, including Meriden biotech company Protein Sciences. Connecticut's first round of Ready to Work training resulted in jobs for 454 people, well over the original goal of 361. Overall, the Labor Department has awarded nearly $170 million to nearly every state in Ready to Work grants.

As this blog has reported, Connecticut has launched initiatives of its own in recent times to help its engineering, life sciences and software developing companies remain competitive. Local authorities and private companies are working together to make the state a technology leader.

On November 4, New York state electors will face some major decisions, including whether to re-elect Governor Andrew Cuomo to a second term. Also on the ballot will be a proposal to approve the Smart Schools Bond Act, which would allow the State to sell $2 billion worth of bonds to fund adoption of technological upgrades in classrooms.

Per the question's official text, the funding would "provide access to classroom technology and high-speed Internet connectivity to equalize opportunities for children to learn, add classroom space to expand high-quality pre-kindergarten programs, replace classroom trailers with permanent instructional space and install high-tech smart security features in schools."

Cuomo introduced the Smart Schools Bond Act, which would distribute money based on the school aid formula, with community leaders, parents, school districts and students coming together to decide how exactly to allocate it. According to the New York State Broadband Program Office, 56 percent of the state's schools have insufficient broadband access, and 31 schools have none at all.

Google chairman Eric Schmidt has joined forces with local leaders, including Geoffrey Canada, the president of the non-profit Harlem Children's Zone, to stress the importance of technology in education in a series of public forums. Proponents say that investment like this is crucial, especially for the development of the STEM fields, and can lead to economic benefits for the region down the road.

Long a leader in a myriad other areas, New York is an emerging technological hotspot, thanks in part to public programs, such as the launch of startup portal Digital.NYC, which this blog reported on recently. Leaders hope that investment in tech education now will make the region attractive to software developing companies in the future.

Big data is becoming increasingly accessible and is no longer the exclusive purview of multinational corporations. An article in Entrepreneur magazine gives a few tips on how small businesses can also gather and analyze data to achieve better business results. Naturally, big data tools for small businesses cannot be identical to those used by major enterprises, because they have to account for the fact that small companies don't have IT departments or, in many cases, any employees with extensive IT knowledge. But with the right tools, small companies can use data to succeed nevertheless.

Here are a few things small businesses should look for in their data gathering tools:

• Ease of use: For small business managers or employees to be able to take advantage of big data, they need tools that are intuitive to use and, as the Entrepreneur article says, "can turn anyone into a data analyst."
• Adaptability: Small businesses, especially in their early stages, are very changeable: they grow quickly in size, they adjust their business strategies as they gain more insights into their industry, etc. Therefore, they need a database system that can be adapted to suit their evolving needs.
• Cloud functionality: Cloud or hybrid cloud-based solutions have a number of advantages over strictly on-site data systems. They are easier to adapt and allow for more flexibility when it comes to working remotely or allowing employees to access databases from their own mobile devices.

FileMaker covers all of these requirements and is perfectly suited for small businesses. With the help of a certified FileMaker developer, companies can create their own customized databases that will give them a clear overview of all the information they need to make better business decisions.

The City of New York launched a website on Wednesday aimed at promoting and aiding startup companies in their early stages. The site is called Digital.NYC and is the Big Apple's latest step toward becoming a hub for the tech industry like it is for so many other businesses. In March, the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority awarded the generic top-level domain .nyc, which the city has been distributing to local organizations for a few weeks.

Digital.NYC was built on the Bluemix cloud platform as a service with support from the not-for-profit New York City Economic Development Corporation. New York City mayor Bill de Blasio publicly introduced the site at a press conference held in the Brooklyn neighborhood of Dumbo, home to a number of successful tech companies including e-marketplaces Etsy and Maker's Row.

"This is the first of its kind anywhere in the world, a public-private partnership to really bring all of the aspects of the industry together," he said. "We love and respect our brothers and sisters in Silicon Valley, but people here can find each other."

The website will feature an extensive database of more than 6,000 names, both companies and investors, to help promising startups find venture capital. Tech professionals will also be able to search job listings, and all interested parties can find information on upcoming courses and events, incubators and workspaces where entrepreneurs can meet to exchange ideas and business contacts.

De Blasio hopes that New York City will soon become a tech hub on par with California's Silicon Valley, producing its own software developing companies and attracting enterprising talent from around the United States and abroad.

Big data is increasingly abandoning the theoretical realm and pervading the business world in more practical ways. And with the increasing availability of data, it also becomes more important for organizations to find ways to harness that information and put it to good use. As statistician David Hand of Imperial College London says to The Huffington Post, “Nobody wants ‘data.’ What they want are the answers.”

Health care is one of the areas that stands to benefit the most from big data, as an abundance of medical information allows researchers to identify previously undetectable trends in clinical trials. In the not-too-distant future, as the Human Genome Project advances, genetic data could lead to unprecedented insight into various diseases. Application development companies are already seeing plenty of opportunities in this area through software that monitors vital statistics and sends them to a patient’s electronic health record.

As this blog reported, the business shift toward big data is already having an effect on higher education, as more students seek data training in anticipation of joining the workforce. And the trend is global: the Bureau of Labor Statistics predicts that there will be 1.5 million jobs for data analytics experts in the United States by 2018 and, according to HuffPost UK, the British government expects 58,000 new jobs and £216 billion (nearly $350.5 billion) in big data over the next three years.

For companies in all sectors, the need to have data-savvy employees is only going to become more pressing with time, as businesses that are quick to make the most of big data’s possibilities will have a significant advantage over those that lag behind. Custom database software can help companies in their big data endeavors by presenting vital information in a clear, easily manageable format.

Big data is becoming more readily available every day, and with it come employment opportunities for those who have the skills to turn information into business results. Big data is a relatively new aspect of the business world, but it is catching on fast and in a wide variety of disparate sectors, which is driving demand for data-related training programs.

Salman Kureishy, program director for business and professional studies at the University of Toronto's School of Continuing Studies, tells the Edmonton Journal that the school's enterprise data analytics program has seen overwhelming demand, mostly from professionals looking to add a new skill that will help them advance their careers. "Many are realizing they are moving to positions where they have to understand analysis of big data but have insufficient training," he says.

Courses like this one aim to teach students how to manage every step of the big data process: classification, manipulation, analysis and presentation. All these skills are essential for businesses to take full advantage of the information they gather.

"Being able to manage, organize and store data is important of course," says IBM Canada vice president of mergers and acquisitions Rob White. "But being able to take that data to gain insights and create meaningful information is becoming a critically important skill set."

Custom database software makes it easier for businesses to compile and analyze data. A certified FileMaker developer can create comprehensive and easy to read databases that fit the needs of each company. Training services are also available to teach managers and employees how to use FileMaker so that they can update and manage their databases, adapting them over time to their company's changing needs.

IT research firm Gartner published the results of a survey carried out in June among 302 companies worldwide regarding their views on big data. Seventy-three percent of respondents said they have invested in big data or plan to do so within the next two years, up from 64 percent in 2013. Conversely, only 24 percent say they have no plans for big data investment, down from 31 percent a year ago.

In North America, 47 percent of businesses have already begun investing, although Gartner noted that the majority of that investment is going to experimental or pilot plans, and few companies have fully implemented big data strategies. The area that has seen a greatest increase in big data application over the past year has been enhancing customer experience.

One statistic surprised the surveyors: when asked what data sources they planned on adding in the future, every option received between 30 and 40 percent of affirmative responses, including audio and video. "This overly optimistic and apparently random nature of future data sources for analysis indicates two things," said Gartner research director Nick Heudecker. "First, organizations don't have a plan for what they're going to do next. Picking everything isn't a strategy. It indicates a fear of missing out on an opportunity yet to be defined. Also, there may be a certain amount of hubris at work. If organizations can 'do big data' on transactions and log data, they may assume they can also leverage more challenging data sources as easily."

Custom database software can help companies make the most of the possibilities of big data, by organizing the information and making it easy to analyze and focus on particular areas that will yield the best results.

Three Connecticut cities are joining forces in an effort to bring ultra high-speed Internet connections to the state. Officials from New Haven, Stamford and West Hartford announced a plan on Monday to begin talks with providers who could upgrade Internet speeds up to 100 times. Companies including AT&T, CenturyLink, Cox Communications and Google Fiber have already implemented similar upgrades at the local and regional level throughout the country, but such services have not reached most of New England.

State and business officials were also present at the unveiling of the plan, and warned that a statewide installation could take anywhere between three and five years. But they also expressed their optimism that the adoption of ultra high-speed connections could provide a significant boost to Connecticut’s economy by making local businesses more competitive. West Hartford businessman Charles Ward said that Kansas City, which was the first city to begin installing Google Fiber in 2011, is already attracting a large startup community.

“We are part of a world economy,” said New Haven mayor Toni Harp. “The time has come to move forward.”

Elin Swanson Katz, the state’s consumer counsel, agreed that high-speed Internet is no longer just a commodity. “There is an overwhelming need today for cheaper, easier access to ultra high-speed Internet service,” she said. “Internet access is now a necessity. It’s like electricity.”

The plan is the latest move on the part of local and state officials to make Connecticut attractive to science and software developing companies. As mentioned on this blog recently, a science and technology startup community is in the works in Southeastern Connecticut. Obviously, this plan and others like it would benefit greatly from the availability of ultra high-speed connections.