Twelve thousand two hundred and four construction job filings landed at the Department of Buildings in the last 30 days, and Manhattan's slice of that pile is worth more than the other four boroughs combined.

Here's the breakdown: Manhattan logged 4,418 filings worth $2.1 billion in declared construction cost. Brooklyn filed almost as many jobs — 3,424 — for $522.8 million. Queens filed 2,415 for $449.3 million. The Bronx filed fewer jobs than Queens, 1,326, but its declared cost, $531.1 million, edges out Queens anyway. Staten Island trails everyone: 621 filings, $52 million.

“One job filed by one owner is currently propping up an entire borough's construction economy on the DOB's books.”

Do the math and Manhattan's average filing runs about $475,000. Brooklyn's average filing is worth about $153,000. Same paperwork, same DOB NOW portal, wildly different dollar signs attached to it — that tells you Manhattan filings skew toward gut renovations and vertical additions on buildings that already have nine-figure price tags, while the other boroughs are running more filings at renovation-and-repair scale.

The Bronx number deserves a second look, because one filing is doing most of the work: a $200 million alteration on Waters Place. Strip that single filing out and the Bronx's 30-day total collapses to roughly $331 million — below Queens, in line with Brooklyn. One job filed by one owner ('PR') is currently propping up an entire borough's construction economy on the DOB's books.

That matters if you're bidding subcontractor work off filing volume as a demand signal. Brooklyn and Queens are producing steady volume — good news if you chase alteration and small-GC work across a wide client base. Manhattan and the Bronx are lumpier: a handful of nine-figure filings (a $67.75 million Broad Street job, a $66.17 million First Avenue job, a $65 million Gouverneur Lane job, all Manhattan) can swing the borough total more than a hundred smaller filings would.

Next 30-day pull is the number to watch. If the Bronx total holds near $530 million without another mega-filing behind it, that's a real second data point. If it drops back toward Queens-and-Brooklyn territory, Waters Place was a one-off and the borough's underlying filing activity is smaller than this month's headline number suggests.