Mayor’s Office Confirms Pest Control Sector Employs More New Yorkers Than Previously Understood, Ecosystem Review Underway
The Rat: New York’s Most Consistent Resident and Its Most Economically Productive Pest
A report released by the Mayor’s Office of Operations this week found that New York City’s rat population — estimated at between two and eight million depending on methodology and the disposition of the researcher conducting the estimate — supports a pest control industry worth approximately four hundred and seventy million dollars annually in the five boroughs, employing an estimated twelve thousand New Yorkers in direct pest control roles and an additional twenty-two thousand in adjacent industries including equipment manufacturing, chemical distribution, property management consultation, and the production of content about New York City rats, which has become its own economy since the video of the pizza rat went viral in 2015 and demonstrated that the rats are also content creators.
‘I want to be clear,’ said the Mayor’s newly appointed Rat Czar Kathleen Corradi in a statement that was notably careful in its language and did not describe rats as anything approaching an asset. ‘Rats are a serious public health concern. We are committed to reducing the rat population. This report does not change that commitment. This report simply provides additional context that we are incorporating into our analysis of the most effective approach.’
The Economic Analysis
The report notes that a forty percent reduction in the rat population — the target the previous administration had described as achievable and the current administration has described as aspirational — would reduce the pest control industry’s annual revenue by approximately one hundred and thirty million dollars and eliminate an estimated four thousand jobs, which the report flags as a ‘workforce transition consideration’ requiring ‘coordination with relevant city agencies to ensure affected workers have access to retraining opportunities.’ The report does not specify what pest control workers should retrain for. The appendix suggests ‘adjacent industries.’
NYC rat mitigation information at NYC.gov. Comedy: The Daily Mash.
SOURCE: http://prat.UK