Eight percent of New York City government jobs are currently vacant, found the Office of New York City Comptroller Brad Lander earlier this month. Before the pandemic, the rate hovered around 2%.
“We need a municipal government that works for the people of this city, achieved by ensuring agencies are adequately staffed and supported so they can successfully provide essential services for New Yorkers,” said City Council leaders Adrienne Adams and Justin Brannan in a statement. “A city often more focused on wasteful contracts than fixing its core workforce shortage will not get us there. Understaffing and underspending on the most critical services for New Yorkers at key agencies that can confront the crises facing our city is not efficiency.”
Throughout the year, concerns of vacancies in the NYPD and Department of Corrections (DOC) sparked public safety concerns and pressure from respective department unions. But Lander points out uniform agencies actually boast some of the lowest rates of understaffing throughout city government. Nine percent of the DOC positions are vacant while just 5% of police department jobs are unmanned.
Still, there are other major concerns facing the city due to agency understaffing. The Department of Buildings faces the highest rate of vacancies for any major agency, with only 1,529 of 1,978 positions filled. That’s over 22% of the ranks vacant. And with fewer inspectors means higher risks of building collapses. Lander also mentions a 36% vacancy rate at Cyber Command thanks to better pay and work-from-home options in the tech world. The shortage leads to higher risks of breaches like the Law Department hack in July 2021.
“Then there are things like how far down we are on early childhood education coaching, on some family service workers at the Department of Social Services whose job it is to support families and get them access to a wide range of resources,” said Lander. “And last year, everyone [was] rightly focused on the affordable housing crisis and the need to be building more housing for New Yorkers. But we’ve got big vacancies at the Department of Housing Preservation Development, the Department of Buildings and the Department of City Planning.
“And if you’re a developer trying to put up a new multifamily building, you might have to go through all three of those agencies. And if your wait times are longer, then that housing people need is just more and more delayed.”
But what’s the root of the problem? The report finds hiring freezes under the de Blasio administration a cause, with a “3-for-1” rule enforcing just one hiring for every three vacancies, although it was later shaved down to two unfilled positions. And like Cyber Command, other agencies face steep hiring competition against the private sector, especially in high-paying fields like tech, law and finance. And the report identifies delayed hirings for budget savings under the Adams administration as another key cause for the understaffings.
The Office also mentions state and local governments are traditionally major employers of people of color—more vacancies mean higher rates of burnout for remaining workers. But the unfilled positions also mean more employment opportunities for Black New Yorkers. This past February, The City reported Black unemployment in the Big Apple was north of 15%. Lander hopes a marriage of these two problems can create a working solution. He adds government jobs often serve as a pathway to upward mobility for Black New Yorkers throughout the city’s history.
“Public jobs with the city have been a critical path to the middle class for Black families, especially [for] women of color for generations—but also on the side of what services that aren’t being provided,” said Lander.
“That isn’t to say it’s been equal…it’s no surprise that both women and people of color and therefore, Black women especially, have historically been underpaid,” he adds. “But still it has been a whole wide range of positions—an essential set of opportunities. So, not filling those spots means people aren’t getting those opportunities.”
To promote further hirings, Lander recommends the city reevaluate hiring requirements for some positions. For example, he says DOC—which largely employs Black corrections officers—can better weather staffing shortages and reported sick leave abuse by lowering education requirements. But Lander doesn’t mean the city should just hire anyone—he adds the process should be more “creative” and seek out those with the proper temperament and demonstrated responsibility for the position.
Looking for a job? Consider sending in a resume to the city of New York.
“This is a great time for people to apply, there are all those vacancies so go to nyc.gov/jobs to see what interests you,” said Lander. “Obviously, people have a really different potential [interests]. The right person who wants to be a 3k teacher [to] help teach 3-year-olds and 4-year-olds how to get on a great path of school is pretty different from the person who we need in Cyber Command [and] is obviously pretty different from a building inspector. But we need almost everything.
“If you’ve got some basic tech skills, we could use them. If you’ve just got some good people skills, we really need it. And not that much more important than picking up the garbage…we need the best and the brightest to come work for the city of New York. And I would love [for] everybody to give it a thought.”
Apply at: NYC.gov/jobs
Tandy Lau is a Report for America corps member and writes about public safety for the Amsterdam News. Your donation to match our RFA grant helps keep him writing stories like this one; please consider making a tax-deductible gift of any amount today by visiting: https://bit.ly/amnews1