NY Fed chief: Most of NYC has recovered from Sandy

The New York City economy has largely recovered from Superstorm Sandy except for hard-hit communities in Queens and Staten Island, the region’s top banker said yesterday.

William Dudley, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, cited “pretty solid job creation through this past summer” led by hiring in education, health care, advertising, computer services, tourism, retail and construction.

However, Dudley said stock brokerages and investment banks — long the city’s economic engines — did not contribute significantly to recent job gains.

A year after Sandy struck on Oct. 29, 2012, Dudley said, “there has been a significant rebound in employment and economic activity across the five boroughs. … Most of the city has bounced back strongly from this historic natural disaster,” he told about 125 students and professors at Queens College.

Some economists have estimated the metropolitan area lost about $3.8 billion in commerce for each day that business was completely stopped. Most say at least two days were lost.

The metro area’s gross domestic product, the value of all goods and services produced here, is $1.4 trillion per year.