NYC Mayor Announces Plan to Improve Workplace Development

Mayor De Blasio is looking to the future for New York job development. He has announced a shift better train New Yorkers for jobs in fast growing fields like health care, technology, and manufacturing.

About 46 percent of New Yorkers live at or near the poverty line, with 1 million people who make less than $20,000 a year.

"People are taking whatever job they can get. They're giving it their all, but a lot of jobs just don't offer a chance at advancement, and will never offer the kinds of wages and benefits with which someone can sustain a family," De Blasio said at a press conference on Friday.

Following the release of a report, Career Pathways, put together after months of study from De Blasio's Jobs for New Yorkers Task Force, four steps have been lined out and will be taken to help assure the new goals for workforce development are met. 

First, a "First Look" hiring process will be established. This means that any business that contracts with the city must review and consider local qualified workers from workforce development programs before they consider hiring anyone else.

The city will invest $100 million into middle-skill occupations and another $60 million annually in new bridge programs that help low-skill job seekers enter into training programs that will prepare them for work in a number of growing fields. Up to 30,000 New Yorkers will be trained each year with the help of this money.

New industry partnerships and talent pipelines will be created in technology fields, health care, manufacturing and construction. This will help align training programs with employer demands. Some groups that are already partners include the Greater New York Hospital Association, Etsy and AppNexus.

And the city will reimburse workforce contracts on the basis of job quality, rather than on the number of job placements.