Big US Companies Pledge To Hire 100,000 Newyorkers In The Coming Months

A group of CEOs, including the heads of JPMorgan Chase and Google, are banding together with the goal of hiring 100,000 New Yorkers who are disadvantaged or people of color over the next decade. The CEOs of banks, tech companies, and consulting firms are forming a group to boost hiring from underrepresented groups in New York.

The Newyork Jobs CEO Council

Leaders from 27 firms that represent many of New York’s dominant industries banded together to create the New York Jobs CEO Council, which aims to hire 100,000 people from low-income Black, Latinx and Asian communities by 2030, according to a release.

The co-chairs of the new organization include Jamie Dimon, CEO of JPMorgan Chase; Arvind Krishna, CEO of IBM, and Julie Sweet, CEO of Accenture. Other initial members of the CEO group include Jeff Bezos of Amazon, Satya Nadella of Microsoft; Sundar Pichai of Google and David Solomon of Goldman Sachs.

The New York Jobs CEO Council will work with community groups and educators to kick start the careers of those often shut out of opportunities, offering training, apprenticeships and entry-level positions at the major companies run by the council members.

Where Are The Job Opportunities?

Those businesses, which range from media to finance to medicine, include Goldman Sachs, Amazon and Mastercard.

“Many New Yorkers are stuck in low-paying jobs that could be lost in the future, or are struggling to navigate the labor market as the COVID-19 crisis has further exacerbated the economic inequities in the city,’’ Jamie Dimon, CEO of JPMorgan Chase and a council co-chairman, said in a statement. “As companies with a long-standing commitment to the New York area and its residents, we are using our collective power to prepare the city’s workforce with the skills of the future and helping New Yorkers who have been left behind get a foot in the door.”

Among the hires and apprentices will be 25,000 students at the City University of New York.

The group will be led by Dr. Gail Mellow, former LaGuardia Community College president, and plans to help companies hire people for entry-level jobs that put them on a career path. The 100,000 figure includes 25,000 jobs and apprenticeships for students from the City University of New York.

“The new initiative will play an important role connecting underserved communities with career resources and access to New York’s world-class educational institutions,” New York Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo said in a statement.

New York And The Job Losses

New York has the largest gross domestic product (GDP) of any Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA) in the U.S. However, not all of the area’s residents are positioned to benefit from the city’s economy as it recovers from the impacts of the COVID-19 crisis. Even before the crisis, which has had a disproportionate impact on low-income Black, Latinx and Asian communities, unemployment in the Bronx was 85% higher than in Manhattan. At the same time, jobs in high demand have not been filled, with less than 400,000 unemployed workers but significantly more job openings in New York in 2018-2019.

By joining forces with local educational institutions, community organizations and nonprofits, the New York Jobs CEO Council members will use their collective resources, capital and network to scale proven employer solutions, build on successful models and share best practices to maximize the Jobs Council’s impact in creating pathways to stable careers for New Yorkers in low-income and diverse communities.

The coronavirus pandemic has helped exacerbate inequality in U.S. cities, resulting in more job losses and worse health outcomes for people in low-income neighborhoods. Nearly 40% of lower-income Americans lost work as the coronavirus began its assault on the U.S. economy, the Federal Reserve said in May.