NEW YORK CITY—Perhaps mindful of the economic recovery's dependence on having healthy growth of the labor force, two organizations Thursday issued reports indicating just what the city is doing on the industrial front, and where it needs to go.

In its new research, entitled, “City Support for the Industrial Sector,” the N NYC Independent Budget Office says more than $812 million in capital funds was contributed to the industrial sector from 2002 to 2013, with the bulk of that money spent on projects to upgrade and modernize city-owned industrial properties and wholesale food markets. Comparitively little, the report notes, has been spent on non-profit industrial landlords or on infrastructure in industrial districts not owned by the city.

Meanwhile, industrial businesses claimed as-of-right benefits worth several hundreds of millions of dollars and, since 2002, the Industrial Development Agency has granted industrial businesses discretionary benefits that will ultimately cost the city $135 million.