NYC Mayor’s Office of Talent and Workforce Development Makes Significant Achievements to better position all New Yorkers to thrive in the Jobs of the 21st Century

NYC Mayor’s Office of Talent and Workforce Development Will Build on this Momentum in 2024 to Strengthen the Impact and Effectiveness City’s Talent and Workforce Development System

The NYC Mayor’s Office of Talent and Workforce Development (NYC Talent) built momentum and achieved multiple milestones to strengthen and align the efforts of public agencies, educational institutions, and private partners across the city’s diverse workforce system. “By building on the vision first laid out in 2022 by Mayor Adams’ Executive Order 22, our team, with partners across the public and private sectors, is working to position all New Yorkers to succeed in meaningful and self-sustaining jobs while ensuring employers have access to skilled talent, “said Abby Jo Sigal, Executive Director of NYC Mayor’s Office of Talent and Workforce Development. 2023 has been a foundational year for talent development, fulfilling Mayor Adams’ clear vision that talent is New York City’s most important asset and commitment to connecting every New Yorker and neighborhood to opportunity. With equity at the center of our strategy, NYC Talent is poised to make 2024 a watershed year for the many communities across our city who historically have not benefitted from career pathways to the jobs of the 21^st century.”

The following are highlights from 2023:

The Future of Workers Task Force, which brought together stakeholders from across the city’s vast workforce system, including educational institutions, unions, public agencies and the private sector, set the stage. The task force developed a system-wide strategy to achieve the goals first laid out in Executive Order 22. In June, we released the report Pathways to an Inclusive Economy: the Future of Workers Task Force Blueprint, which provides a road map to coordinate resources, uplift best practices, build momentum, and sustained critical public-private partnerships to better support NYC employers and New Yorkers of all ages in search of good jobs and opportunity, starting with these five strategic levers:

1. Reimagine and empower the NYC Workforce Development Board with increased private sector leadership;
2. Create and administer a new public/private Talent Investment Fund, launched with an initial commitment of $15 million from the City, which will be matched by private funds;
3. Expand the number of apprenticeships, resulting in the Mayor’s State of the City moonshot goal of supporting 30,000 apprentices in NYC by 2030;
4. Establish shared impact metrics to articulate and report system-level outcomes and measure progress; and
5. Improve the user experience for employers engaging with the public workforce system, starting by building an employer-facing “front door.”

After a multiyear push by the City and NYC Talent, the New York State legislature passed community hiring legislation in June. In July, Mayor Adams announced the formation of the Office of Community Hiring and the appointment of Doug Lipari as its executive director. Governor Hochul signed the legislation in November.

“Our city’s economic recovery depends on opening up our workforce to those who have been denied a fair shot for far too long. But the Office of Community Hiring will be on the frontlines of ensuring that low-income individuals and economically disadvantaged communities have access to good-paying opportunities,” said Mayor Adams. “I want to thank our partners in Albany for helping to push this legislation forward as part of my ‘Working People’s Agenda,’ and know that Doug Lipari will do an amazing job in leading this office to build a more inclusive economy.”

NYC Talent’s Office of Community Hiring will work with contractors to identify promising talent and provide employment and apprenticeship opportunities for low-income individuals and those residing in economically disadvantaged communities. Once fully implemented, an estimated 36,000 jobs will be created annually for low-income individuals and impacted communities, allowing city contractors to leverage the full talent of the New York City workforce.

On July 26th Mayor Adams announced a new, two-part investment to support career advancement for people with disabilities and expand access to internships, training seminars, jobs, future careers, and financial counseling. The announcement includes launching a Center for Workplace Accessibility and Inclusion that will address the structural challenges many people with disabilities face when pursuing a career. It will also increase the city’s investment in direct employment services that help people with disabilities prepare for and connect to jobs and careers. The $8.8 million plan will help 2,500 New Yorkers with disabilities find career-track employment over the next three years.

“It is estimated that around two-thirds of working-age New Yorkers with disabilities are jobless — either unemployed or not in the labor market — not because they are unable to work, but because they have so often been denied the supports necessary to access and sustain employment, but I am committed to being the mayor for all New Yorkers, including those living with disabilities,” said Mayor Adams.

On October 24th Mayor Adams kicked off his Working People’s Tour celebrating a major milestone of 5,000 new registered nurses (RNs) trained through the Citywide Nurse Residency Program since its launch in 2019, putting thousands of New Yorkers on the path to fulfilling, family-sustaining careers. As the nation’s first city-led nurse residency consortium, the program offers on-the-job training and other supports to recently graduated, newly hired RNs. It has been implemented at over 28 health care facilities across the city and supported hospitals in training and retaining nurses — saving them millions of dollars — while also helping new nurses succeed in their early careers. The program has helped average nurse retention exceed 96 percent year to date at participating NYC Health + Hospitals (H+H) campuses, far surpassing the national average of 84 percent.

“In recent years, we have witnessed the extraordinary resilience of New York City nurses and the critical role they play in the well-being of New Yorkers and our city. The Citywide Nurse Residency Program not only values our nurses’ grit and tenacity, but also ensures supporting working nurses and their seamless transition from years of training into the workplace,” said Mayor’s Office of Talent and Workforce Development Executive Director Abby Jo Sigal. “Today’s milestone marking over 5,000 nurse residents to date shows how invested the city and this administration are in the health of New Yorkers, supporting our nurses and essential workers, and strengthening our city’s economy.”

To close the year, on December 11th Mayor Adams announced, Pathways to an Inclusive Economy: An Action Plan for Young Adult Career Success"- a more than $600 million, forward-thinking roadmap to build inclusive pathways for the city's young people to discover their passion, receive hands-on career experience, and, ultimately, enter the workforce. Through comprehensive, collaborative partnerships across the city, state, and federal governments, and multiple other sectors, the action plan will develop the city's future workforce, serving up to 250,000 young people. The action plan and its investments deliver on key commitments made in Mayor Adams ' "Working People's Agenda" and Executive Order 22 to provide young New Yorkers with fulfilling careers and financial security, while helping private employers find the best talent.

"Our 'Working People's Tour' is focused on making sure our economy works for all New Yorkers - especially our young people - and helps them find the network, resources, and opportunities needed to thrive in an ever-changing world," said Mayor Adams. "New York City's tomorrow depends on what we do for our young people today. That's why this plan brings together all levels of government, multiple city agencies, employers, and partners across various sectors to tell our young people: we are here to help you succeed. From out-of-school and out-of-work youth to high school students who simply want to follow their dreams and everyone in between, this plan is for them - to let them know that New York City is still the place where anything is possible."

The plan includes a $10 million city investment to expand CUNY 2x Tech to five new campuses and marks the first time the program will serve CUNY's community colleges. Over the next five years, Baruch College, Borough of Manhattan Community College, City Tech, Guttman Community College, and LaGuardia Community College will receive funding to continue to develop a high-quality tech talent pipeline by expanding the capacity of CUNY's Computer Science Department and other departments.

Finally, the plan incorporates $130 million in federal funding from the U.S. Department of Labor Jobs (USDOL) Jobs Corps Program, the nation's largest job training and education program. New York City is the first major city to partner with the USDOL Jobs Corps Program, which offers training in fast-growing industries - all free of charge to participants. The USDOL has selected DB Grant Associates to provide academic and career technical training and Career Systems Development Corporation to provide essential wrap around services at their South Bronx and Brooklyn campuses. Over the next five years, the city will support the Jobs Corps program to train, place, and provide wraparound services to 2,000 young adults.

In 2024, NYC Talent, in partnership with our many stakeholders at all levels of the workforce system, will continue to spearhead strategies to position New Yorkers and New York City employers to make progress on the citywide workforce objectives outlined in Executive Order 22. Our whole of government approach to achieve the vison and goals laid out over the first years of the Adams’ administration will include developing and innovating policies, programs and service models to ensure New Yorkers have pathways to family-sustaining employment while simultaneously meeting the talent needs of employers across all the industries that power New York City.

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Media Contact

Matthew Beller

Mbeller@talent.nyc.gov

(212) 513-9241