Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani is working on beefing up his incoming administration, with aides reportedly sorting through over 72,000 resumes to fill thousands of vacancies in city government.
But stumbling blocks remain when it comes to a massive job search.
What You Need To Know
Around 100 staffers are working with a $3 million budget, according to a transition spokeswoman
The transition team is using an applicant tracking software but declined to share the company’s name with NY1. Resumes are then sorted by staff. But as of now, no one has yet been hired this way
Already 179 people have been told they won’t have jobs on Jan. 1. Some are union workers and expect to be shifted off the fired list, to an agency role
“They come from every single zip code in New York City and from different walks of life, different sectors. The average age is 28,” transition co-chair Maria Torres-Springer said during an interview at their office in a government-owned building across the street from City Hall.
“These are individuals who might have deep government experience, but they’re also individuals who may not have worked in government, but bring a level of talent and creativity and commitment,” she added.
Around 100 staffers are working with a $3 million budget, according to a transition spokeswoman.
Although big jobs like incoming First Deputy Mayor Dean Fuleihan and chief of staff Elle Bisgard-Church have been announced — with more on the way — City Hall has thousands of vacancies.
“The city has 18,000 vacant positions, 14,000 vacant full-time positions, but a third of them are teachers, cops, firefighters,” Andrew Rein, president of the fiscally conservative Citizens Budget Commission, said.
“I sit on the Pension Board at the New York City retirement system. We used to see about 300 people retire. We’re seeing five times as many,” Henry Garrido, president of the city’s largest municipal union DC37, said.
“People are attracted to a message of an administration that wants to do well and then they hit the reality of low salaries, in some cases, long hours [and] the inability to do remote work in some city agencies, which the private sector has managed to do,” he added.
The general online portal is a simple format: applicants upload a resume, photo and select specific areas of interest like criminal justice, housing or transportation.
The transition team is using an applicant tracking software but declined to share the company’s name with NY1.
Resumes are then sorted by staff.
But as of now, no one has yet been hired this way.
The campaign also did not share data on whether applicants are interested in political appointments or civil service roles.
“What we’re focused on right now, from the 72,000 resumes that we have received, is really filling the senior-most roles across agencies and at City Hall, so we’re ready on day one,” Torres-Springer said.
But most new faces will be hired through the civil service system with specific qualifications, requiring exams and waiting periods.
Unions want Mamdani to focus on specific roles.
“The city has been under a siege of the attack, a lot of cybersecurity attacks, and unfortunately, we haven’t been able to recruit and retain folks in the IT world,” Garrido said.
Already 179 people have been told they won’t have jobs on Jan. 1. Some are union workers and expect to be shifted off the fired list to an agency role.
“You want to make sure that you want to attract new bright people, but you also want to make sure that you have experienced folks that continue to run institutional systems that have been established for decades,” Garrido told NY1.
Some say the new City Hall has a real opportunity to attract a new generation of city workers, but also to reform an archaic and inefficient hiring system.
“We need to manage the civil service system much better, give more tests, call more lists so people can get hired, ultimately this is an area of reform that will help the city deliver services and help people on their career paths,” Rein said.