Gotham Gazette

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jobs

jobs

  • As Mayor Adams Takes on the Issue, City Council Examines NYC Workforce Development Programs and Plans

    Mayor Adams visits a factory (photo: Michael

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  • An Inclusive Economic Recovery Will Prevent Crime

    On the job (photo: Michael Appleton/Mayoral Photography Office)


    Roughly a decade has passed since New York City experiencedcrime rates and

    4 Keys to an Equitable Economic Recovery from the Pandemic in New York

     

    Ground-breaking (photo: John McCarten/City Council)


    A month before COVID-19 swept through the five boroughs, headlines about New York City’shistoric economic growth were abounding. Yet, even as the growth of the city’s economy reached historic heights, a crisis of inequity persisted in Black and brown communities, who were facing higher rates of unemployment, less investment and growth, poorer health

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  • Strengthening New York City’s Natural Areas to Tackle Unemployment and Climate Change

     

    Trees and jobs (photo: Ed Reed/Mayor's)


    New York City’s20,000 acresof natural areas have been a lifeline for New Yorkers throughout the pandemic and form the first line of defense against the harms of climate change. But decades of underinvestment in the care and preservation of these vital open spaces threatens their longevity, even as surging visitation adds new stresses.

    At a time when New

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  • An ‘Opportunity’ for Bad Economic Policy

    Workers on the job site (photo: Edwin J. Torres/Mayoral Photo Office)


    Recently, Patrick Purcell, Jr. of the New York State Laborers-Employers Cooperation & Education Trust and Assemblymember Karines Reyesauthored an op-ed regarding the Roadway Excavation Quality Assurance Act (REQAA) and its potential to positively impact the environment, the economy, and the workforce. The piece

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  • Legislators Introduce Bill to Extend and Expand NYC Freelancer Protections Across New York State

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    Freelance photography (photo: NYC Department of Consumer & Worker Protection)


    In 2017, New York City’s “Freelance Isn’t Free” legislation took effect, giving gig workers crucial protections against exploitation and wage theft. State Senator Andrew Gounardes and Assemblymember Harry Bronson are now attempting to replicate the law state-wide with a new bill they introduced on Thursday that would expand state labor law protections to freelancers.

    The bill from Gounardes, a Brooklyn Democrat, and Bronson, a Rochester Democrat,

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  • 'An Unprecedented Job Program': Adams Promises Overhaul of Workforce Development in New York City

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    Mayor Adams at a small business (photo: office of Eric Adams)


    New York City’s wounded economy and the rise and fall of key sectors during the pandemic has heightened pre-pandemic concerns about the match between the labor needs of employers and the skills of hundreds of thousands of jobseekers. Eric Adams made better preparing the city's workforce a major area of focus as he pitched his vision of the city's recovery to New Yorkers in his successful campaign for mayor.

    "We are going to launch an unprecedented job program to link

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  • New York Department of Labor Sued Over Failure to Release Unemployment Insurance Information

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    Gov. Hochul presents data (photo: Kevin P. Coughlin/Governor's Office)


    An advocacy group for low-income communities is suing New York State for documents and data that could shed light on the struggle of non-English speakers to get unemployment insurance during the pandemic.

    The National Center for Law and Economic Justice (NCLEJ), a legal advocacy organization, filed a lawsuit in New York State Supreme Court last week against the state Department of Labor for documents the group requested under the state Freedom of Information Law.

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  • Identifying Programs from Elsewhere to Boost New York City's Economic Recovery and Transformation

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    NYC resources for city residents in need (photo: Ed Reed/Mayor's Office)


    As the economic recovery from the covid pandemic continues to change the job market, experts are looking across the Hudson at a new model to get New York City's workforce ready for the leading sectors of the future.

    In June, New Jersey launched Pay It Forward, a bond initiative to fund workforce training programs for good-paying jobs in growing industries as part of an effort to address the lack of short-term education options for low-income residents. Economists and

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  • Key Steps the Adams Administration Should Take to Protect Unemployed New Yorkers Looking for Work

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    New Yorkers seeking help (photo: Gerardo Romo/City Council)


    When Mayor-elect Eric Adams takes the oath of office in January, he will need to do more than just manage the city’s economic recovery. He will have to ensure that the more than 8% of New Yorkers who are unemployed are able to participate in it. This means ensuring that job-seeking New Yorkers aren’t forced to take on debts they can ill afford just to apply for one in the first place.

    Unfortunately, there are warning signs that predatory private actors are already putting

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  • Make Workforce Development Essential to Neighborhood Rezonings, Report Says

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    New York City resource fair (photo: Ed Reed/Mayor's Office)


    As New York City government changes land use rules and invests in communities through rezonings, it should make workforce development a key piece of the equation, according to a new report recently released by the Center for an Urban Future and JobsFirstNYC, two non-profit organizations focused on equitable growth in the city. This is especially true, the report says, given the economic impacts of the pandemic, whereby the city is still down roughly 500,000 jobs.

    “Rezonings, which by definition are

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  • Infrastructure Implementation: Apprenticeship Programs are Vital to Building New York Back Better

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    Construction workers (photo: Edwin J. Torres/Mayoral Photo Office)


    With the federal infrastructure bill now law, New York is primed to receive more than $100 billion in direct investment in public works projects across the state, inclusive of upgrades to mass transit systems, roads, highways, and bridges, and other essential and critical elements of New York’s future.

    The diverse array of infrastructure projects soon to break ground statewide also comes with a greater demand for skilled work – work that members of the unionized construction

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  • Coalition Outlines How Next Mayor Should Address Workforce Development During City’s Economic Recovery

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    Workforce development (photo: Michael Appleton/Mayor's Office)


    Invest in Skills New York City, a citywide coalition part of a state group focused on prioritizing workforce development, recently released a report examining how the city’s workforce development funding is spent and issuing recommendations for the next mayor to improve how that work feeds the city’s economic recovery from the devastation of the covid pandemic.

    In ...

  • Covid Vaccination and the New York City Recovery

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    New York's recovery is happening (photo: Michael Appleton/Mayoral Photography Office)


    New York City was the epicenter of the deadly COVID-19 pandemic as it began in the United States. It recorded its first death from the disease on March 1, 2020. The city’s economy also suffered a massive setback during the lockdown in the early months of the pandemic.

    A full job recovery is still several years away and the major problems that predated covid and persisted through it — poverty, homelessness, affordable housing, unemployment and under-employment — are

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  • New Poverty Data Shows Effects of Federal Relief, Prompts Calls for Continued Aid

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    Federal relief arriving (photo: Michael Appleton/Mayor's Office)


    Despite the coronavirus causing mass death, displacement, and unemployment last year, federal relief staved off the worst of its socio-economic effects and prevented a massive spike in poverty, new Census data revealed this past week.

    While incomes did decline and the national poverty rate increased marginally in 2020, a more expansive poverty measure that accounts for the effect of government programs showed a decrease as millions of people were kept from falling into poverty and

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  • Letter to the Editor: How to Really Prepare Workers for the Construction Industry and Good Middle-Class Jobs

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    Workers rebuilding New York (photo: Ed Reed/Mayoral Photography Office)


    To The Editor:

    A recent op-ed published at Gotham Gazette, co-authored by David Meade, executive director of Building Skills New York, was riddled with classic smoke and mirrors. One might be tempted to believe that Building Skills offers a chance to build public infrastructure with skilled training, safe career pathways, and

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  • Pandemic Spurred Major Jump in Out of School, Out of Work Young Adults in New York City: Report

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    New York City youth (photo: Michael Appleton/Mayor's Office)


    The number of young adults who are both out of school and unemployed surged during the pandemic after declining for much of the past decade, a new report from the workforce development organization JobsFirstNYC confirmed.

    The analysis, commissioned by JobsFirstNYC and conducted by the analytics firm Chmura, crunched data from the Census Bureau's Community Population Survey to show 27% of 18-to-24

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  • Skills Training is Integral to the Success of the Federal Infrastructure Plan and New York’s Construction Sector

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    Construction workers (photo: Michael Appleton/Mayor's Office)


    From the first day of its introduction, the Biden infrastructure plan has been cast as a critical tool to transform our nation’s economy after the upheaval caused by the coronavirus pandemic.  

    This bipartisan deal aims to pump $1.2 trillion over the course of eight years into repairing and building new roads, bridges, broadband, and electric vehicle infrastructure, creating millions of new, good-paying jobs that will accelerate the covid recovery. 

    With the influx of

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  • As New York’s Economy Recovers, There's a Crucial Role for Internships for People with Disabilities

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    At work (photo: icdnyc.org)


    Even before the COVID-19 pandemic struck, the U.S. unemployment rate for people with disabilities was 2.5 times higher than for those without. The pandemic has had a devastating effect on the employment and job prospects for people with disabilities, but New York’s business and nonprofit communities can play a vital role in the economic

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  • Anti-Poverty Organizations Offer Equity Agenda for Next Mayor

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    Resources for New Yorkers (photo: Ed Reed/Mayor's Office)


    On Thursday, three organizations focused on equity published a report with a broad set of anti-poverty policy recommendations for New York City’s next mayor. Robin Hood, The Century Foundation, and Next100 teamed up for the project, putting forth “From Crisis to Opportunity: A Policy Agenda for an Equitable NYC,” with 150 pages of detailed plans to “get all New Yorkers back on their

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  • Democratic Mayoral Candidates Offer Plans for Jobs and Economic Growth

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    A city resource fair (photo: Benjamin Kanter/Mayoral Photo Office)


    According to the Mayor’s Office, the city experienced a growth of 100,000 jobs from December 2020 to March 2021, and expects to gain 400,000 more to reach a total of 4.5 million jobs by the end of 2021. Even as economic indicators have been headed in the right direction in recent months -- including significant job growth -- amid public vaccination, some easing of

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  • The Next Mayor Must Finally Address Our Commercial Affordability Challenge

    our commercial afford

    (photo: Edwin J. Torres. Mayoral Photo Office)


    New Yorkers know that love of neighborhood is synonymous with love of small businesses. But in 2020, we suddenly learned just how thin the reserves of our shops, restaurants, and bars can be. Many New Yorkers responded by doubling down on that love of local; meanwhile, too many businesses felt deeply let down by their elected officials as they faced mounting rent debt and great uncertainty. And so when small business owners vote in June’s Democratic primary to elect the next mayor, many will be voting

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  • Tech Jobs in the City are Growing; Here's How to Make Sure New Yorkers Can Fill Them

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    Robotics and tech ed (photo: Benjamin Kanter/Mayor's Office)


    With more than half-a-million New Yorkers out of work amid a painful economic downturn, the continued growth of tech positions stands out as a beacon of economic recovery. Connecting more residents with these jobs presents an important opportunity for the next mayor to get New Yorkers working again.

    Despite months of grim economic news, tech firms have continued to double down on New York City. Over the past year, companies including Google, Facebook, Apple, Amazon, and Netflix have signed new

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  • Democratic Mayoral Candidates Offer Ideas on Workforce Development and Jobs

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    Workplace dynamics are changing (photo: Philip Kamrass/Governor's Office)


    Three Democratic candidates for mayor of New York City spoke at a forum Wednesday evening about their visions for restoring and enhancing the city's workforce going into the pandemic recovery.

    Eric Adams, Shaun Donovan, and Kathryn Garcia -- all considered among the top eight leading candidates in the competitive primary race and all veterans of New York City government -- discussed how they would harness the city's resources to create quality jobs in the hour-long forum,

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  • What is New York City Doing to Prepare Its Workforce for the Post-Pandemic Economy?

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    Resource Fair (photo: Ed Reed/Mayor's Office)


    With the announcement Friday of a $155 million investment in small businesses, including $5.5 million for workforce development programming, Mayor Bill de Blasio staked a foothold along a critical frontier in New York City's pandemic recovery: preparing workers for the changing economy.

    The city's economy was devastated by the COVID-19 pandemic, with the unemployment rate jumping fivefold to a high of over 20% last June. In-person jobs have contracted significantly, especially in hospitality, nightlife, retail, and

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