Leaders of more than two dozen of New York City’s largest employers – including JPMorgan Chase, Ernst & Young, IBM, McKinsey & Company and Accenture – aim to earn 100,000 residents and people of color by 2030 and will help to prep them for technical jobs.
Why it matters: When the city’s economy boomed, many New Yorkers were left behind – especially during the pandemic. The hiring initiative marks an unusual pact among companies, some of their competitors, to tackle systemic unemployment.
What’s happening: A new group calling itself the New York Jobs CEO Council says it plans to hire 100,000 New Yorkers over the next few decades – focusing on low-income people and those from Black, Latinx and Asian communities.
- That includes hiring and offering students for 25,000 students from City University of New York, whose colleges traditionally serve low-income students and students of color.
- The focus will be on entry-level assignment training – students may, for example, be taught to code in Python and other useful computer languages.
- The CEO Council has Dr. Gail Mellow, who was recently principal of CUNY’s LaGuardia Community College, hired to spearhead the project.
- It will serve as a liaison, let the CUNY colleges know what kind of training the companies need and help place students at the companies.
The backstory: The initiative began before the pandemic, but has since taken on some particular urgency because health and income disparities have emerged – and because the nation is dealing with systemic racism.
- “It’s becoming clearer that companies need to do more in terms of income inequality, and this is one thing that I think will help a lot,” Carmine Di Sibio, CEO of Ernst & Young, told Axios.
- As part of the initiative, companies such as E&Y will relax their hiring standards for some entry-level technical jobs – e.g. No longer required for four-year or advanced degrees.
- “Over time, qualifying for these jobs has become a lot more difficult versus what is actually needed for these jobs,” says Di Sibio.
The finish line: Many New Yorkers are stuck in low-paying jobs with little hope of progress, and the New York Jobs CEO Council is marking an effort to make a dent in the problem.
- “We are using our collective strength to prepare the city’s workforce for the skills of the future, and to help New Yorkers who are left behind get a foot in the door,” says Jamie Dimon, CEO of JPMorgan Chase.
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