Mayor Zohran Mamdani is opening a permanent walk-in jobs center in Lower Manhattan where New Yorkers can get help navigating public-service hiring, as city agencies continue to carry more than 14,000 vacant authorized positions.

The Jobs NYC Center at 2 Lafayette St. will begin regular walk-in hours Oct. 5, according to details shared with amNewYork ahead of the mayor’s scheduled announcement on Monday.

Job seekers will be able to get help finding openings, applying for positions and understanding the civil service process. At the same time, agencies will use the space for hiring halls, interviews and other recruiting events.

The center will operate five days a week, with unscheduled walk-ins available Monday through Thursday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. City Hall said there will generally be three staffers available to assist walk-ins, with staffing varying depending on what is scheduled that day.

“Every New Yorker deserves a real shot at a good job, including serving the city they call home,” Mamdani said in a statement. “The path to public service should not be difficult to navigate.”

As of Aug. 31, the city had 292,808 employees against 307,199 authorized positions, leaving 14,391 vacancies, or a 4.68% vacancy rate, according to City Comptroller Mark Levine’s agency staffing dashboard.

The Administration for Children’s Services (ACS) alone had 676 vacancies, a 9.62% vacancy rate, and is already scheduled to use the new center for hiring information sessions on Oct. 5, 12 and 19. The Department of Social Services had 1,860 vacancies, or 14.87% of its authorized positions, per the dashboard.

The city’s hiring process has previously drawn scrutiny over how long it can take to move applicants into jobs. At a City Council oversight hearing earlier this year, Civil Service and Labor Committee Chair Shirley Aldebol said it can take six months for someone who has been called from a civil service list to actually be hired and in place.

“If someone has to wait a year and a half to even get hired, they’re going to go find a job someplace else,” Aldebol said at the time. “So, we’re potentially losing a lot of talent.”

Enhancing Jobs NYC program

Jobs NYC itself predates the Mamdani administration. The initiative launched in 2024 under former Mayor Eric Adams, bringing hiring halls and career services into communities with high unemployment. City Hall said the program has since helped 47 city agencies and public institutions, including the Department of Education, NYC Health + Hospitals and CUNY, recruit workers.

The Lafayette Street center will give the initiative a permanent home, and while its main focus will be public-service careers, city officials said staff can also connect job seekers with state and federal positions, jobs at nonprofits that contract with the city and other public-service-related work.

Its October calendar already includes a climate and manufacturing hiring event, a Manhattan hiring hall and a 55-a information session and hiring hall. The Lafayette Street site has already hosted hiring events during an August soft launch.

Seventeen Small Business Advocates and Compliance Advisors for NYC BEST were hired through the center’s first hiring hall during that soft launch. Mamdani will swear them in Monday as part of the center’s formal launch.

The 17 new hires will more than double the size of NYC BEST, expanding the team from 13 to 30 employees. City Hall said the hires are part of Mamdani’s plan to double the unit.

Mamdani directed SBS in July to expand BEST through his “Open for Small Business” executive order. The order calls for business owners using BEST to receive a dedicated project manager who can help identify required permits and licenses, assist with applications, coordinate inspections and provide updates as applications move through the city. The executive order calls for an expanded NYC BEST but does not specify a numerical staffing target.

The Jobs NYC Center is being run jointly by SBS and the Department of Citywide Administrative Services using the agencies’ existing budget allocations, according to City Hall. The administration said the center puts a long-vacant city-owned space back into use.

“I’ve talked to workers across this city who assumed a job in public service wasn’t for them — the process seemed too complicated, with too much paperwork and no one to help them through it,” Deputy Mayor for Economic Justice Julie Su said. “This Center changes that.”

New Yorkers looking for work can find upcoming events and other information at nyc.gov/jobsnycnow, email JobsNYC@sbs.nyc.gov or call 888-SBS-4NYC.