{"id":209843,"date":"2025-09-08T09:22:07","date_gmt":"2025-09-08T09:22:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/209843\/"},"modified":"2025-09-08T09:22:07","modified_gmt":"2025-09-08T09:22:07","slug":"behind-all-time-high-job-growth-in-nyc-17k-government-positions-sit-vacant","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/209843\/","title":{"rendered":"Behind \u2018all-time high\u2019 job growth in NYC, 17K government positions sit vacant"},"content":{"rendered":"

Signs of the problem crop up in many places. A smaller portion of families in New York City shelters got mental health assessments in the first four months of this fiscal year compared to last year. The chief medical examiner\u2019s office performed fewer autopsies. The time it took the Fire Department to inspect fire alarms rose 28%. The named culprit in each situation, according to a preliminary report<\/a> on citywide agency performance: staffing shortages.<\/p>\n

And amid a deadly outbreak of Legionnaires\u2019 disease this summer, Gothamist found<\/a> that inspections of building cooling towers \u2013 where the disease-causing bacteria can grow \u2013 have been on the decline, and the number of inspectors is down over the past three years. The city health department has said it would be \u201cwrong\u201d to attribute the current outbreak to the lower headcount. But hiring more water ecologists is part of its stated plan to reduce the risk of future outbreaks.<\/p>\n

The New York City government employs hundreds of thousands of civil servants. There are cops and correction officers. Teachers and school cafeteria aides. Social workers and nurses. There are also more obscure roles, like auto mechanics servicing the city\u2019s vehicle fleet, urban park rangers, property tax assessors and specialists who maintain parking meters.<\/p>\n

The workforce is massive, but it\u2019s diminished. More than 17,000 full-time positions in city government were vacant as of August. Officially, the city is no longer under a hiring freeze that was implemented to save money in 2023<\/a>. But for many agencies, a \u201c2-for-1\u201d policy is still in effect in which a vacant position can only be hired once two other employees have left. Across multiple agencies, unfilled vacancies are straining city workers to a breaking point. \u201cFor as long as I\u2019ve been in this city, the way that they look at it is \u2018vacancies are savings\u2019 and they refuse to see the actual resource drain, the cost of attrition, burnout and things breaking,\u201d said a 20-year veteran city employee of the city\u2019s budget officials. Like other employees interviewed for this story, this city worker was granted anonymity to talk about staffing woes.<\/p>\n

\"\"
\nSource: New York City Independent Budget Office<\/p>\n

Under then-Mayor Bill de Blasio, the city\u2019s workforce ballooned and peaked at 300,446 full-time workers in fiscal year 2020. Then the COVID-19 pandemic hit. Many government workers retired early or were pushed out because they didn\u2019t want to return to the office, and the private sector promised higher salaries and more flexible work arrangements. In early 2022, when Mayor Eric Adams took office, more than 25,000 full-time positions sat vacant.<\/p>\n

Fulfilling a campaign promise, the Adams administration starting slashing more than 7,000 of those vacant positions from the books \u2013\u00a0a budget necessity it said only became more urgent due to unexpected spending on care and shelter for migrants. In the meantime, the administration said it meant to fill the remaining vacancies, helped by hiring halls held across the city.<\/p>\n

Today, the Adams administration points to progress. The job vacancy rate is down from that COVID-era peak of more than 8% to 5.89% \u2013 though that reduction is due in part to the simple deletion of thousands of vacant positions from the city budget. Overall headcount is up 3% from when Adams took office. In 2023, the administration agreed to a hybrid work pilot program for a handful of city agencies that has expanded to include tens of thousands of eligible employees. Even Adams\u2019 critics concede that the policy has been successful in retaining some workers after the pandemic, and newly settled contracts with raises for the vast majority of public sector unions have helped too.<\/p>\n

But problems persist. The pace of actual hiring can be lethargic \u2013\u00a0extended by sometimes monthslong waits for approval from the city\u2019s budget office. And in areas where workers have been left doing the same or more work with fewer people, some report a loss of morale that leaves them wondering if the passion that first pulled them into civil service is still strong enough to keep them there.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne person leaves, someone else has to take their role, and there\u2019s no improvement for them. No title bump, no money bump, just given more stuff to do and the same recognition \u2013 or no recognition,\u201d said one employee in the Office of Technology and Innovation. \u201cI think that\u2019s the main cycle here. And I think it\u2019s to the point now where people are leaving because they\u2019re hitting the end of that cycle.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI actually enjoy the work that I do. But the sheer volume \u2013 it\u2019s not manageable,\u201d said one tax assessor.<\/p>\n

So for some, Adams\u2019 frequent championing of private sector job growth<\/a> feels discordant with the city\u2019s own staffing picture. \u201cI cringe every time I see a post from the mayor\u2019s office like, \u2018Most jobs ever,\u2019 and I\u2019m like, \u2018Where? Where are they?\u2019\u201d said City Council Member Carmen De La Rosa, who chairs the Committee on Civil Service and Labor. \u201cI think there\u2019s this conflict or fight between being what I think they like to call \u2018fiscally responsible\u2019 with city spending, and the trade-off is a workforce that isn\u2019t as robust as it should be.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWithout us, nothing would move\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

The New York City Police Department has more than 3,000 vacancies. The Department of Correction has more than 1,500. The medical examiner\u2019s office is down 16 medical examiners from its budgeted 36. Henry Garrido, executive director of District Council 37, the city\u2019s largest public sector union, said the city\u2019s current vacancies account for more than 8,000 positions that would be represented by his union. That includes school aides, maintenance workers, gardeners and park rangers. Joseph Colangelo, president of the SEIU Local 246 representing auto workers, is down to about 1,300 members from around 1,500 during the de Blasio administration. \u201cWe\u2019re not visible to the public,\u201d Colangelo said. \u201cBut we are critical to how the city operates. \u2026 Without us, nothing would move.\u201d<\/p>\n

Unions, of course, have a lot to gain from higher membership. But they\u2019re not the only ones raising alarms about staffing shortages. In their own more subtle way, even agency leaders acknowledge that they don\u2019t always have the resources they need.<\/p>\n

NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch testified to the City Council in March that 911 operator staffing levels are \u201csignificantly down\u201d from when she oversaw the bureau during her earlier tour at the agency during the de Blasio administration. Tisch, who was previously Department of Sanitation commissioner, also said her old department didn\u2019t have enough staff to handle street vending enforcement on its own, though a spokesperson for the department called that assessment out of date and said current staffing levels were sufficient.<\/p>\n

\"\"
\nSource: Citizens Budget Commission and New York City Independent Budget Office<\/p>\n

While some agencies report bright spots and optimism about filling vacancies \u2013 hiring is outpacing departures at the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, for example \u2013 problem areas remain. There is a 27% vacancy rate in the department\u2019s mental health and hygiene division, including roles like clinical and social workers, acting Commissioner Michelle Morse said in March. The department said that vacancy rate hasn\u2019t changed significantly in the months since.<\/p>\n

The department reported that it has not been able to meet its goal of inspecting every registered cooling tower for Legionella bacteria annually \u2013\u00a0inspections that supplement much more frequent sampling required of building owners \u2013\u00a0because they\u2019ve been short-staffed. Since the recent Legionnaires\u2019 disease cluster began, the department has brought on three new employees and has seven more starting soon to help fill 12 vacancies for water ecologists. Of the two sites where Legionella was recently found, the department said one, Harlem Hospital, had been inspected within the year, and the other, a construction site, was only registered<\/a> on July 31.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe burnout is very real\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

Unions and some lawmakers have drawn attention to what they said was understaffing in revenue-generating roles \u2013\u00a0where staffing up should be a no-brainer, even for budget hawks.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you\u2019re not collecting the right amount from each individual homeowner and you have a budget which needs a certain amount of money, you could be missing out on the revenue that could be funding other things for the city,\u201d one city assessor said. \u201cMoney is being left on the table.\u201d<\/p>\n

The union representing city tax assessors testified at a March council hearing that more experienced and supervisory level assessors were needed to evaluate districts that are undergoing more complex physical changes, like new construction. \u201cAs time passes, the workload is not decreasing, it is increasing, yet the staff (especially experienced staff) keeps shrinking,\u201d Candice Ficalora, president of Local 1757, said in written testimony.<\/p>\n

The assessor said their own workload has them looking to the private sector. \u201cIt\u2019s very demoralizing,\u201d the assessor said. \u201cYou want to stay in city service, but there\u2019s zero appeal at this point.\u201d<\/p>\n

In statements, both the Department of Finance and the Tax Commission said they\u2019re able to carry out their work. \u201cUnder the Adams administration, we will continue to fill these positions with qualified candidates as quickly as possible, and no matter what, we always carry out our critical work to ensure the accuracy and fairness of the city\u2019s tax administration,\u201d a Department of Finance spokesperson said.<\/p>\n

A Tax Commission spokesperson rejected the suggestion that understaffing in the assessor role could negatively impact the city\u2019s tax revenue. \u201cBeing that the total number of assessors at The Tax Commission has not impacted the agency\u2019s ability to meet its charter-mandated mission, the Tax Commission disagrees with the premise of the question,\u201d they wrote in an email.<\/p>\n

But in a presentation that the Tax Commission made at New York Law School in January, the commission acknowledged that it was working with reduced resources, saying \u201cvirtually all areas of Tax Commission operations were impacted\u201d by fewer staffers in multiple roles, according to the presentation obtained by City & State.<\/p>\n

One 20-year veteran civil servant said challenging workloads and slow hiring weren\u2019t problems limited to this administration. But in prior administrations, it seemed easier to actually get people hired. \u201cTo be fair, this happened before Adams. There were things we were trying to do to address it. But people are doing the work of three people,\u201d the employee said. \u201cThe burnout is very real.\u201d<\/p>\n

The black box<\/strong><\/p>\n

For many people, civil service isn\u2019t a hard sell. They\u2019re eager to work for the city. They apply to an agency, and the agency is equally eager to hire them. Theoretically, it should be a simple equation for the city to tick off one of its 17,942 vacancies. <\/strong>In reality, it can take months to actually do so.<\/p>\n

That was the case for one former employee at the Department of Correction, who received a tentative offer from the agency within weeks of their final interview. The employee accepted the position. But to make it official, the city\u2019s Office of Management and Budget needed to sign off on it. <\/strong>It was three months before they gave the go-ahead. \u201cI didn\u2019t know if I was going to have the job or not,\u201d the employee said. \u201cOMB is kind of a black box.\u201d<\/p>\n

Though the Department of Correction had warned that the process could take a couple months, they could provide no specific timeline. \u201cAnecdotally, I\u2019ve heard colleagues of mine who have been approved in two weeks. I\u2019ve heard of other folks who have been approved in eight months,\u201d the employee said.<\/p>\n

Staffing problems aren\u2019t new to city government, nor are they limited to the Adams administration. Public sector employment across the country has struggled to bounce back<\/a> as fast as the private sector post-pandemic. The state of New York went through its own pandemic staffing crisis, though its overall headcount<\/a> is reaching pre-pandemic levels now. Even today, the <\/strong>New York City Council has a 22% vacancy rate, according to a record of OMB headcount data<\/a> maintained by the New York City Comptroller\u2019s Office.<\/p>\n

But there is a feeling among some inside city government that hiring is more difficult than it needs to be in New York City. It\u2019s one thing to fight for a new funding line to hire more workers than a department is currently budgeted for \u2013\u00a0it\u2019s another to fight for the ability to hire someone in a position that\u2019s already vacant.<\/p>\n

Some think the budget office has been more involved than usual lately. \u201cI\u2019ve heard time and time again that the logjam is within OMB, that they are holding up candidates,\u201d said City Council Member Julie Menin, who under de Blasio served as commissioner of both the Department of Consumer Affairs and commissioner of Mayor\u2019s Office of Media and Entertainment, and led the city\u2019s 2020 U.S. census efforts. \u201cThen we lose that individual, the individual finds another job \u2013\u00a0understandably so \u2013\u00a0and the position remains vacant.\u201d<\/p>\n

Both Menin and Garrido said they\u2019ve even heard of the budget office wanting to interview candidates for jobs at other agencies themselves. City Hall said the Office of Management and Budget\u2019s goal is ensuring that salaries are aligned with collective bargaining agreements, and that the only occasion on which they would participate in an interview is when a candidate is applying for a job in that department. A spokesperson for City Hall did not comment on concerns shared that the budget office\u2019s approvals have become more difficult under this administration, or clarify whether OMB has a target for approving positions within a certain time period.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen Mayor Adams came into office, the city\u2019s workforce had a higher-than-average vacancy rate and was still reeling from the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic,\u201d mayoral spokesperson Liz Garcia wrote in an email. \u201cSince then, the Adams administration has recovered New York City\u2019s economy and tourism industries, driven down crime, navigated the city through an $8 billion migrant crisis, and built, preserved, and planned for an unprecedented amount of housing across our city \u2013 all while reducing the vacancy rate and increasing the headcount by over 3,000 people.\u201d<\/p>\n

Although Adams\u2019 vacancy reductions prompted an outcry among his critics, some budget experts agreed that the city\u2019s headcount didn\u2019t need to be as high as it was when Adams came into office and more than 25,000 positions sat vacant. \u201cAdams was totally right to do it,\u201d Citizens Budget Commission President Andrew Rein said of Adams eliminating thousands of open positions. \u201cWhy should we be carrying all these vacancies?\u201d<\/p>\n

Where the administration erred was in cutting too bluntly, Rein said. \u201cThe vacancies aren\u2019t where we need them, and our systems aren\u2019t flexible enough to hire good people quickly.\u201d<\/p>\n

The case for civil service<\/strong><\/p>\n

For some 300,000 New Yorkers, the allure of civil service can\u2019t be dulled. Call it passion. Or a pension. Or some combination.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe benefits are pretty good,\u201d said the 20-year veteran employee. \u201cPublic service is something that has always interested me. And I\u2019m a person who needs some job stability and security.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cNobody calls me on the weekend. And if they did, I would probably not pick up and I don\u2019t think I would face any consequences for that,\u201d said a city employee who works in IT. A tech worker at Amazon, for example, couldn\u2019t necessarily say the same. \u201cAlso, you are less likely to get canned in layoffs,\u201d the employee said.<\/p>\n

Some also hope that there may soon be a new administration. Adams is running for reelection, but he\u2019s doing so on a difficult path as an independent candidate. His opponents (for now<\/a>) include Democratic nominee Zohran Mamdani, who leads in polls, fellow independent candidate and ex-Gov. Andrew Cuomo, and Republican Curtis Sliwa. Several workers said they\u2019re hopeful about a potential Mamdani administration in particular, though none of the mayoral candidates have promoted any detailed plan for how they\u2019d approach hiring and retention of the city\u2019s workforce at large.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhile the Adams administration hollowed out our agencies and left residents behind, Zohran Mamdani will fully fund our city agencies and build a government that delivers,\u201d Mamdani spokesperson Dora Pekec said.<\/p>\n

And spokesperson Rich Azzopardi said Cuomo would review the city\u2019s bureaucracy \u201cto determine the greatest needs and the best allocation of resources.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hopeful or not, don\u2019t expect those workers to fall in line with a mayor who doesn\u2019t work for them. \u201cFull disclosure, I voted for (Mamdani), I support his candidacy,\u201d the tech employee said. \u201cBut at the same time, I realize as a union member, I\u2019m going to have to negotiate against him should he become mayor. So I support him, but I\u2019m willing to fight him later.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Signs of the problem crop up in many places. A smaller portion of families in New York City…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":209844,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5122],"tags":[5229,5289,606,405,403,5226,5225,5228,5227,153,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-209843","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-eric-adams","10":"tag-labor","11":"tag-new-york","12":"tag-new-york-city","13":"tag-newyork","14":"tag-newyorkcity","15":"tag-ny","16":"tag-nyc","17":"tag-policy","18":"tag-united-states","19":"tag-united-states-of-america","20":"tag-unitedstates","21":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","22":"tag-us","23":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115167949376831514","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/209843","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=209843"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/209843\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/209844"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=209843"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=209843"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=209843"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}