Brooklyn (named after the Dutch town Breukelen) is one of the five boroughs of New York City, located southwest of Queens on the western tip of Long Island. Brooklyn is New York City's most populous borough, with 2.5 million residents and second largest in area. If the borough were a separate city, it would be the fourth-largest city in the United States.

The history of Brooklyn spans more than 350 years. The settlement began in the seventeenth century as the small Dutch-founded town of "Breuckelen" on the East River shore of Long Island, grew to be a sizable city in the nineteenth century, and, in 1898, was consolidated with the city of New York and with the rural areas of Queens and Staten Island, to form the modern city of New York.

Brooklyn's job market is driven by three main factors: the performance of the national/city economy, population flows and the borough's position as a convenient back office for New York’s Businesses.

In recent years Brooklyn has benefited from a steady influx of financial back office operations from Manhattan, the rapid growth of a high-tech/entertainment economy, and strong growth in support services such as accounting, peronal supply agencies and computer service firms.

Forty percent of employed population in Brooklyn, 410,000 people, work in the borough; more than half of the borough's residents work outside its boundaries. As a result, economic conditions in Manhattan are important to the borough's jobseekers. Strong international immigration to Brooklyn generates jobs in services, retailing and construction.