Between February 2 and July 9, 2026, households in the New York metro posted 23 hiring requests on the GigNGo local-services marketplace, with a typical stated budget of $200 per job — above the $160 median across the marketplace nationwide. More than half of those jobs, 52 percent, were odd jobs that fit no standard service category, and the metro currently has more listed local workers ready to take jobs (32) than open jobs for them to take (23).
This report covers every hiring request posted on GigNGo within 40 miles of Lower Manhattan during the period, after removing jobs flagged by the marketplace's scam screening. The sample is small — 23 jobs — and it describes activity on one marketplace, not the regional economy. Both points are covered plainly in the methodology below. Within those limits, the numbers are real: every figure on this page is computed directly from the jobs people actually posted and the budgets they actually stated. A companion report covers the other end of the corridor: the Philadelphia Local Services Report 2026.
Finding 1: More than half of New York metro jobs fit no standard service category
The single largest group of metro jobs — 12 of 23, or 52 percent — were errands and odd jobs that fit none of the standard home-services categories: one-off pickups, small favors, tasks no traditional contractor advertises for. That share is even higher than the 37 percent across the full Philadelphia–New York corridor. Moving, hauling, and delivery help came second at 4 jobs (17 percent), followed by handyman and small home repairs and painting at 3 jobs each (13 percent), and cleaning with 1 job (4 percent).
Those odd jobs were not trivially priced: the 12 of them carried a median stated budget of $162.50, with the middle half falling between $100 and $200. In the New York metro, "just find me a person" is both the most common request and reasonably paid work.
Finding 2: The typical metro job carries a $200 budget — the high end of the corridor
The median stated budget across all 23 metro jobs was $200, with the middle half of jobs falling between $90 and $250. That sits above both the $160 median across all 253 budgeted jobs posted on GigNGo nationwide and the $125 median across the full Philadelphia–New York corridor — the New York end is where corridor budgets run highest. One $4,390 exterior painting job is the largest in the sample, which is why this report leads with medians rather than averages: the average ($398) says more about that one job than about the typical one.
National category benchmarks for comparison are published in GigNGo's cost guides — handyman services $200, moving help $150, house cleaning $200, all marketplace-wide medians. The metro's own per-category samples outside odd jobs are too small (4 or fewer jobs each) to report metro-level category medians honestly, so we do not.
Finding 3: Listed local workers outnumber open jobs — the opposite of Philadelphia
GigNGo's public worker directory lists 32 local workers with usable locations inside the New York metro — across Manhattan, Brooklyn, Westchester, and a wide arc of north Jersey towns from Rahway to Bergenfield — against 23 jobs posted during the period. In other words, help is available: the binding constraint in the New York metro is jobs, not people to do them.
That is the mirror image of the Philadelphia end of the corridor, where 11 jobs were posted against only 9 listed locals with usable locations — the one part of the corridor where demand outran listed supply. For consumers in the New York metro, the practical takeaway is straightforward: a posted task has a deep bench of nearby locals who can respond. The full comparison is in the Philadelphia report.
Finding 4: The New York metro is the larger side of the corridor
Of the 35 jobs posted across the entire Philadelphia–New York corridor in the period, 23 (66 percent) came from the New York metro. Within the metro, New York State accounted for 15 jobs (65 percent) — led by New York City with 7, plus Yonkers, Chappaqua, Mount Pleasant, and Nassau — and New Jersey for 8 jobs (35 percent), spread across Hoboken, Jersey City, Bayonne, Secaucus, Passaic, Perth Amboy, Bergenfield, and Tinton Falls. Demand here is not a Manhattan story: two-thirds of metro jobs were posted outside New York City proper.
Activity is also accelerating: 21 of the 23 metro jobs (91 percent) were posted in the 90 days before this report, against 2 in the 90 days prior. We want to be straightforward about what that measures: GigNGo itself grew substantially over the spring of 2026, so this reflects the marketplace's growth in the region at least as much as any change in underlying demand. It should not be read as a regional economic indicator.
The data
| Service group | Jobs posted | Share | Median stated budget |
|---|---|---|---|
| Errands and other odd jobs | 12 | 52% | $162.50 |
| Moving, hauling, and delivery help | 4 | 17% | Sample too small |
| Handyman and small home repairs | 3 | 13% | Sample too small |
| Painting | 3 | 13% | Sample too small |
| House and home cleaning | 1 | 4% | Sample too small |
| All New York metro jobs | 23 | 100% | $200 |
Jobs posted on GigNGo within 40 miles of Lower Manhattan, February 2 – July 9, 2026, excluding jobs flagged by scam screening. Medians are reported only for groups with at least 5 budgeted jobs. Shares are rounded and may not sum to exactly 100 percent. Middle half of all metro budgets: $90–$250. State split: New York 15 jobs (65%), New Jersey 8 (35%).
See also the companion report for the other end of the corridor: Philadelphia Local Services Report 2026.
Methodology
What this data is. Every number in this report is computed from real hiring requests posted by consumers on the GigNGo marketplace, using the budget the consumer stated when posting (their estimated price, or the midpoint when they gave a range). Nothing is modeled, surveyed, or estimated from outside sources. Equally: this report describes activity on GigNGo's marketplace. It is not a measure of the whole local-services economy in the region, and it should not be cited as one.
Metro definition. A job counts as inside the New York metro if its posted location falls within 40 miles of Lower Manhattan. Forty miles is the same radius GigNGo uses internally to group nearby towns into a single market, on the logic that a local worker can realistically serve anywhere in their metro. The metro so defined covers New York City and lower Westchester, plus northern and central New Jersey as far as Perth Amboy and Tinton Falls. It is the same 40-mile rule used in our Philadelphia–New York corridor report, applied to the New York end alone.
Sample and date range. Of 294 hiring requests on the marketplace at the time of analysis, 25 were excluded because GigNGo's scam screening had flagged or hidden them, leaving 269. Of those, 23 fell inside the New York metro, posted between February 2 and July 9, 2026. Medians are reported only where a group has at least 5 budgeted jobs; smaller groups are shown as counts only.
Supply counts. Local-worker supply comes from GigNGo's public worker directory. Of 994 listed profiles nationwide, 568 include usable location coordinates; the metro count of 32 includes only those, so true supply is somewhat undercounted. The comparison with the Philadelphia end of the corridor uses the same method on both sides.
Small-sample caveat. Twenty-three jobs is a small dataset. Medians are reasonably stable at these sizes; single large jobs are not — one $4,390 painting job sits in this sample, which is why this report leads with medians rather than averages throughout.
National category benchmarks referenced in this report (handyman $200, moving help $150, house cleaning $200) are the marketplace-wide medians published and continuously updated at gigngo.org/costs.
Media and citation
Journalists, researchers, and bloggers may cite any figure in this report with attribution to GigNGo and a link to this page (gigngo.org/new-york-local-services-report-2026). Suggested attribution: "according to marketplace data from GigNGo, a local-services platform."
GigNGo also publishes continuously updated national pricing data at gigngo.org/costs (what services cost consumers) and gigngo.org/earnings (what local workers earn per job), computed from real jobs using the same methodology. For questions about this report or the underlying data, reach us through gigngo.org/contact.