NEW YORK CITY-Relief is on the way for New York companies looking for class A office space, currently in scarce supply in the city. According to data from the New York Building Congress, by the end of the decade up to an additional 20 million square feet of class A space will be added, much of it green.

It’s a sign, New York Building Congress president Richard Anderson says, of the city’s improving economy. “These buildings would not go forward without a net addition to employment in the city,” Anderson tells GlobeSt.com. New York City office employment, the NYBC notes, has been on the rise, with 48,000 jobs regained as of April 2011, for a total of 1.7 million office jobs.

Non-seasonally adjusted unemployment data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics also shows improvements. April’s unemployment rate in New York City was 8.6%, down from 9.8% the same month last year.