NYC Talent and Partners Across City Government Continue to Expand Onramps to Good Careers for Working New Yorkers...

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NYC Talent and Partners Across City Government Continue to Expand Onramps to Good Careers for Working New Yorkers in 2024

For Immediate Release: December 20, 2024
Contact: mbeller@talent.nyc.gov, 212-513-9241

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New York - The NYC Mayor's Office of Talent and Workforce Development (NYC Talent) celebrates a landmark 2024 by continuing to connect New Yorkers to good paying careers and ensuring the city's employers can access the talent they need to thrive. Talent and workforce development is central to making the city a more affordable place for working New Yorkers.

"From day one, our administration has focused on creating a safer, more affordable New York City. In 2024, we continued to deliver on that vision and 'Get Stuff Done' for working-class New Yorkers," said New York City Mayor Eric Adams. "Thanks to our extraordinary public servants, America's safest big city got even safer this year, with overall crime down and thousands of illegal guns, mopeds, and ghost cars taken off city streets. We passed historic legislation to turn New York into a 'City of Yes,' shattered affordable housing records once again, and put billions of dollars back into New Yorkers' pockets. We broke records for the most jobs and small businesses in city history and moved millions of trash bags off our sidewalks and into containers. But we know that there is even more we can do to continue to uplift working-class families. As we look to the future, our administration remains committed to keeping New Yorkers safe and making our city more affordable for the millions of New Yorkers who call our city home."

"A good paying job is critical to making our city livable for all New Yorkers while making the city more equitable, resilient and prosperous," said New York City Mayor's Office of Talent and Workforce Development Executive Director Abby Jo Sigal. "We are thrilled to celebrate another year of closely aligned work with our partners in government, industry, academia and the non-profit sector to connect people to jobs, paid training, and the supports they need to launch and succeed in a career, and ensure employers have the talent they need to drive the economy forward."

Highlights from 2024 include:

Positioning Youth for Career Success – Building off the release of the Action Plan for Young Adult Career Success, the Adams administration has made progress towards important milestones:

In May, Mayor Adams and CUNY Chancellor Felix Matos-Rodriguez announced a $12 million public/private expansion of the CUNY Inclusive Economy Initiative which leverages CUNY campus resources to create college-to-career pipelines for CUNY students. Launched in 2022, the initiative has served over 3,100 students and worked with more than 2,000 industry partners.

Six months after launching "NYC Teenspace" – a free tele-mental health service available to all New York City teenagers between the ages of 13 and 17 years old – New York City Mayor Adams and New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene updated New Yorkers on the program's progress, announcing that more than 6,800 teenagers have already signed up for the service.

The NYC Tech Talent Pipeline (TTP), NYC Talent's tech industry partnership, proudly launched the expansion of its flagship CUNY 2X Tech program to five new campuses, providing students with academic and career coaching, internship placements, and direct connections to tech employers. This cohort of schools– Baruch College, NYC College of Technology, Borough of Manhattan Community College, LaGuardia Community College, and Guttman Community College – includes the first two-year community colleges to participate and brings the number of schools who have implemented the program to 12.

CUNY 2X Tech works with more than 15,000 students, with an expected 3,000 grads per year. The new schools are among the first to specialize in growing disciplines within the tech skills ecosystem, such as data science and cybersecurity. CUNY has also hired a Dean of Technology and Information Sciences to oversee the implementation and coordination of the program across all five colleges, which will allow for improved program efficiency and efficacy.

The expansion of FutureReadyNYC was announced in December marking a significant expansion of the Adams administration's initiative to set students on a path to economic security through career-connected mentorships. The expansion brings the program to 36 additional schools, for a total of 135 schools served, and introduces two new career pathways in the professions of heating ventilation and air-conditioning (HVAC) and decarbonization, as well as human and social services. These new sector pathways will give students the opportunity to explore 21st century careers through industry-aligned coursework and work-based learning while expanding these vital opportunities to more students.

Expanding Apprenticeship – the Adams administration is focused on doubling the number of apprenticeships to achieve its moonshot goal of creating 30,000 apprenticeships by 2030.

To celebrate National Apprenticeship Week held this November, Mayor Adams and NYC Talent announced that New York City is now home to more than 15,000 apprenticeship opportunities–marking an important halfway point of the administration's moonshot in less than three years. The commitment was first announced in Mayor Adams' 2023 State of the City address.

By launching NYC Talent's Apprenticeship Accelerator, the city aims to amplify and expand apprenticeships to new industries and to serve more diverse populations. The majority of these apprenticeships are in key sectors that drive the city's economy, including the growing green economy, health care, information technology, and other sectors. For example, of the more than 4,000 new health care apprentices, 83 percent are women and 79 percent identify as people of color.

The city is also "walking the walk" with apprenticeships. Through the partnership with CareerWiseUSA and NYC Public Schools, 151 public school youth apprentices have been placed in 22 city agencies since June 2022.

NYC Talent also released two Requests for Proposals to further expand apprenticeships, accompanied by a Request for Information that has served as the foundation of a new Community of Practice to help develop an exchange of ideas, resources, and best practices to help grow apprenticeship across the workforce ecosystem.

Strengthening Partnerships with Industry – a strong talent development system requires partnering closely with employers to prepare for the future of specific industry sectors and understand what skills are needed for the occupations that power the city's economy.

At the Brooklyn Army Terminal in February, Mayor Adams announced the Green Economy Action Plan, a first-of-its-kind plan that lays out a roadmap to decarbonize and grow the city's green economy. This $750M plan, co-authored by NYC Talent and the New York City Economic Development Corporation, reflects research and feedback from across the local economy and commits to investments in jobs and sectors that will help the city combat climate change while also offering training and career opportunities for New Yorkers – particularly those from environmentally-disadvantaged communities. The Plan projects 400,000 ''green-collar' jobs will exist in New York City by 2040, including 12,000 apprenticeships.

Realizing a recommendation from the Future of Workers Task Force Blueprint, this April NYC Talent launched the New York City Workforce Development Council ("The Council") to serve as the center of gravity for New York City's public workforce system. Chaired by Rob Speyer, CEO of Tishman Speyer, the Council includes leaders from the business community, educational institutions, unions, nonprofit organizations, and funders. The Council has over 30 external stakeholders committed to rebuilding and strengthening the city's talent and workforce development system for a post-pandemic labor market. The Council works hand in hand with the federally mandated Workforce Development Board and features committees focused on apprenticeship expansion, early career success, the future of work in NYC, and data-driven decision making.

In October, NYC Talent's Center for Workplace Accessibility and Inclusion (CWAI) and the Mayor's Office for People with Disabilities (MOPD) celebrated National Disability Employment Awareness Month (NDEAM) by acknowledging the employers, advocates, and community organizations that are helping to reduce barriers to employment for individuals with disabilities and make the city's economy more inclusive for all New Yorkers. The Center for Workplace Accessibility and Inclusion acknowledged the contributions of Lincoln Center, Accenture, the Axis Project, Tech Kids Unlimited, NYC Department of Citywide Administrative Services, The Filomen M. D'Agostino Greenberg Music School and Lincoln Center.

CWAI in partnership with Wells Fargo and the University of Connecticut held an all-day workshop that was attended by a cohort of 10 companies where participants worked to create a blueprint tailored to their own company's neurodiversity initiative goals. This collaboration fosters a more inclusive workplace and helps companies recruit and retain neurodiverse employees.

Connecting Jobseekers to Career Opportunities – NYC Talent works closely with a wide range of public and private stakeholders to better connect New Yorkers to jobs, especially jobseekers who face historic employment barriers.

At the Brownsville Community Justice Center in March, Mayor Adams announced "Jobs NYC," a citywide effort to reduce barriers to economic opportunities and deliver workforce development services directly to communities experiencing high unemployment across the five boroughs. Central to the effort was the Jobs NYC Hiring Hall sprint and the launch of the Jobs NYC website. Over the year through the Jobs NYC Hiring Halls, nearly 10,000 attendees were connected to employment, free training, and workforce development resources. Jobs NYC hiring halls are now a permanent part of the city workforce system with regular events led by the New York City Department of Small Business Services (SBS). New Yorkers can also visit the Jobs NYC website, which is an important tool for those seeking jobs and upskilling opportunities.

NYC Talent's Center for Workplace Accessibility and Inclusion and the New York City Mayor's Office for People with Disabilities (MOPD) announced in July expanded workforce services for New Yorkers with disabilities and celebrated a hiring milestone for this community. Thanks to a previous $1.5 million investment from the New York State Department of Labor, the city will launch the New York Systems Change and Inclusive Opportunities Network (SCION) at eighteen Workforce1 Career Centers, run by the New York City Department of Small Business Services (SBS) to train staff to better serve and prepare individuals with disabilities for careers.

To increase opportunities in city government, NYC Talent is expanding the Partnership for Inclusive Internships (PII) program to place 100 additional New Yorkers with disabilities over three years into paid internships with the goal of becoming employed full time. Since originally announcing a goal of connecting 2,500 New Yorkers with disabilities to good-paying jobs and careers over three years, the Adams administration is ahead of schedule, already connecting over 500 individuals with disabilities to jobs.

NYC Talent's healthcare industry partnership, the New York Alliance for Careers in Healthcare (NYACH), continues to drive impact and collaboration across the sector. The Nurse Residency Program saw continued growth supporting nurses as they transition from education to practice in hospitals and clinical sites across the city, including expanding to now include locations in all five boroughs. NYC Talent was also pleased to welcome Jasmine Vega-Pegram as our new NYACH Executive Director, who joins the team with a wealth of experience across the healthcare sector.

Implementing Community Hiring – the city is leveraging its purchasing power to drive economic mobility by connecting City vendors to a pipeline of talent and jobseeker from economically disadvantaged communities to opportunity.

In June, Mayor Adams, NYC Talent's Office of Community Hiring (OCH), and the New York City Department of Citywide Administrative Services (DCAS) announced the city's first-ever community hiring effort, which will leverage more than $1.2 billion in city contracts to create job opportunities for underserved New Yorkers. Community hiring allows the city to use its purchasing power, set hiring goals across city procurement contracts, and build on the success of existing project labor agreements and agency-specific hiring programs. As part of the announcement, DCAS released the city's first-ever request for proposal subject to community hiring, which will result in an estimated $1.2 billion in contracts for security guard services and fire safety personnel throughout the five boroughs.

In November, the Adams administration announced two historic Project Labor Agreements (PLAs) that will cover over $1 billion in construction projects, including green infrastructure improvements, repairing the city's sewers, roads, and bridges, and a $270 million investment in the transformation of Willets Point. These PLAs include the largest-ever commitment to investing in M/WBEs, and for the first time, they incorporate Community Hiring goals to ensure that job and apprenticeship opportunities are made available to workers living in New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA) housing or a ZIP code where at least 15 percent of the population lives below the federal poverty threshold.

As the year comes to a close, the Office of Community Hiring is also wrapping up the formal rulemaking process, a key step in the rollout of Community Hiring. These rules will establish the operational framework for Community Hiring. Over the course of the year, OCH engaged over 100 different internal and external partners to develop the rules and design an initiative that is reflective of stakeholder input. The rules will go into effect in early 2025, which will allow the City to expand Community Hiring goals across more contracts.