Consulting firms in New York City: 6,344 offices, and Manhattan pays $175,162 a head

This report is for job seekers and students targeting New York consulting, for organizations hiring a consultant in the city, and for companies that sell to consultancies. It gives the Census count by borough and by kind of consulting, where the big firms are, what the work pays, the checks to run before hiring and how firms here buy.

The count, borough by borough

County Business Patterns (CBP) 2023 counts establishments in NAICS 5416, Management, Scientific, and Technical Consulting Services, in the five counties that make up the city:

The Census Bureau published the Bronx and citywide employee and payroll totals but flagged them as high-noise: the noise it adds to protect confidentiality changed them by 5% or more, so we don't report them. Across the city, 5,112 offices have one to four employees, 494 have five to nine and 289 have 10 to 19; the remaining 449 have 20 or more (our calculation from the total), but the city-level split above 19 isn't published.

Manhattan's own split is published in full: 2,425 offices with one to four employees, 302 with five to nine, 200 with 10 to 19, 179 with 20 to 49, 70 with 50 to 99, 77 with 100 to 249, 32 with 250 to 499, 14 with 500 to 999 and 9 with 1,000 or more. Manhattan offices paid $11.75 billion in 2023, or $175,162 per employee (our calculation). All of these are establishment counts: a firm with a Midtown and a Brooklyn office counts twice, and a consultant with no payroll isn't in them.

What kind of consulting New York does

Manhattan's general management consultants paid $196,936 per employee on average (our calculation from CBP payroll). Marketing consulting is unusually big in Brooklyn: 516 of its 1,721 consulting offices. IT consulting sits in computer systems design (541512), with 1,239 offices across the five boroughs. For the code definitions, see the NAICS code for consulting.

Where the big firms are

Addresses come from the firms' own office pages and Accenture's 10-K, as of 30 October 2026:

Booz Allen lists no New York City office. Three firms couldn't be checked: McKinsey's site timed out, EY's office pages load their addresses by script, and PwC's site refused automated requests. The Big Four accounting firms explains how their consulting arms sit beside audit and tax.

Headquartered here. Marsh (NYSE: MRSH), at 1166 Avenue of the Americas, reported 2025 revenue of $9.79 billion in its consulting segment: Mercer $6.19 billion and Marsh Management Consulting, the Oliver Wyman group, $3.60 billion, with over 7,200 colleagues at Oliver Wyman. SEC EDGAR files Marsh under insurance, not consulting. The two listed companies EDGAR does file under management consulting with New York addresses aren't consulting firms: 1847 Holdings' 10-K describes construction and automotive businesses, and T3 Defense's describes an aerospace and defense acquirer with no 2025 operating revenue. Firm-wide rankings are in the largest consulting firms.

Pay and jobs

The Bureau of Labor Statistics counted 67,630 management analysts (occupation 13-1111) in the New York-Newark-Jersey City metro in May 2025, with a median wage of $124,390 and a mean of $133,590; the 10th percentile earned $66,430 and the 90th $210,390. The metro is wider than the city and the occupation spans all industries. Students should note the size mix: 132 Manhattan offices have 100 or more staff, and another 249 have 20 to 99, so most openings at established firms sit in a few hundred offices.

Federal work is a small share here

Only $35.1 million of federal consulting obligations (NAICS 5416) were for work performed in the five boroughs in fiscal 2025, according to USAspending.gov, down from $80.1 million the year before. The largest recipients were MDRC ($10.5 million), STG International ($5.8 million), EMAX Financial & Real Estate Advisory Services ($3.6 million) and Kroll ($3.2 million). New York consultancies earn their living from corporate clients.

Before you hire a New York consultant

1. Match the kind of firm to the problem. Use the table above: a marketing strategy boutique and a restructuring adviser are different hires.
2. Check registration. The Department of State's corporation and business entity database, reached from dos.ny.gov, didn't respond to our automated check, so search it directly. If you're a public buyer with M/WBE goals, the city's SBS Connect certifies minority and women-owned firms and keeps an online directory.
3. Separate advice on investments from consulting. Investment advice is a different industry (NAICS 523940) and usually needs registration as an investment adviser; look the firm up on the SEC's Investment Adviser Public Disclosure site.
4. Ask who staffs the work, get references from clients your size, and put deliverables, ownership of models and a fixed fee for defined scope in the contract.

Selling to New York consultancies

General guidance: firms under 20 staff buy through a founding partner; firms of 20 to 99 through a chief operating officer or head of knowledge; the 132 Manhattan offices of 100 or more mostly belong to national or global firms, where tools are bought centrally after a practice pilots them.

Illustrative example. The company, prices and results are fictional.

Notewell (notewell.example) sells an AI tool that transcribes and summarizes expert-network calls at $1,500 per seat a year. It targets Manhattan strategy and marketing consultancies with 10 to 49 staff; Manhattan has 379 offices of that size across all consulting codes. A 25-person firm buying 12 seats pays 12 x $1,500 = $18,000, so 20 customers would bring $360,000 a year. The first email cites a sector the firm publishes on and offers a free month on one live project. Sorting the 379 into independent boutiques and branch offices, and finding each firm's head of knowledge, is where Bebop does the account research.

Next step: compare New York with consulting firms in Boston, the home of Bain and BCG, or see the city's wider business base in companies in New York City.