Brian Lear on WNYC, we'll turn to the economy now, national and local, and to some degree, political.

Nationally, the latest twist in the post-pandemic recovery came on Friday with a lower than

expected number of jobs created last month, but that made the stock market go up.

Locally, Greg David from the news organization, the city, has an article called New

to New York stores are helping to turn around the retail apocalypse.

Greg David is also director of the Business and Economics Reporting Program at the Craig

Newmark Graduate School of Journalism at CUNY.

Hi, Greg, always good to have you.

Welcome back to WNYC.

Always good to be on.

I know, I don't know if you wrote or approved the headline, but what's the retail

apocalypse?

Well, that's what happened after the pandemic when stores shuttered, had a hard time getting back up.

And indeed, in most ways, we have not recovered the retail jobs lost in the pandemic.

Why? Well, part of it's the pandemic. Part of it's the lack of

return to office. And part of it simply is, of course, long-term trends as more and more people

shop online. But the good news in my story is that a whole series of first to New York retail shops

are coming here because they think they have to be in New York.

I wrote about Orior, a furniture maker from Northern Ireland, Wahav, a bridal fashion brand from Israel,

Totemi, a Swedish apparel company, Thuma, a San Francisco mattress company.

I talked to a bunch of spas in the Flatiron area who are opening here for the first time.

So that's a good sign. People feel the need to come to New York City.

...