The Times asked last week whether America’s best engine of social mobility can weather a bad job market. The answer is yes, but not on autopilot and not on the backs of students alone. I told The Times that too many employers still don’t see CUNY and public school students as worth the upfront investment. That’s not a talent problem. It’s a failure of imagination.

New York already has the workforce it needs. Our competitive advantage isn’t hiding overseas or in another state. It sits in CUNY classrooms, public school career programs, apprenticeship training centers, and neighborhoods in every borough.

And the infrastructure is already in place. The New York Jobs CEO Council has shown that when major companies commit to skills-based hiring and build real pipelines into communities like ours, they do not just fill seats — they find the talent they had been screening out for years. Look at FutureReadyNYC, which puts public school students on career-connected pathways with early college credit, work-based learning, and industry credentials before they ever graduate. The next generation is not waiting to be discovered. They are being prepared, right now, in our public schools. So keep going. Go bigger.

CUNY ASAP, one of the most rigorously proven college success models in the country, has nearly doubled graduation rates by pairing tuition support with advising, OMNY cards, and the wraparound services that keep students moving forward. CUNY Reconnect has brought tens of thousands of New Yorkers back to finish what they started. Organized labor has been building talent the right way for generations through apprenticeships that pair training with wages, mentorship with accountability, and jobs with career pathways. Providers like Per Scholas, Project Basta, COOP Careers, and CareerWise, among many others, have proven what works, not with testimonials, but with data. These are not pilots or promises. They are proof.

The formula isn’t complicated. Build talent in cohorts. Surround people with coaching and peer networks. Stay engaged through that critical first job. Teach the durable skills employers consistently rank among the most valuable: communication, problem-solving, teamwork, adaptability, and persistence. These aren’t “soft skills.” They are the skills that drive productivity, strengthen workplaces, and fuel business growth.

Now, accountability for everyone.

The larger the employer, the greater the responsibility. You measure everything else in your organization; measure this. Track New York City talent across your workforce, your leadership pipeline, and your vendors. If incentives help accelerate that work, let’s build them. Corporate philanthropy has value, but it is not transformation. Until New York City public school and CUNY graduates are represented throughout your workforce and at your leadership tables, there is more work to do.

Stop recruiting from the same schools and expecting different results. The talent pipeline you’re looking for runs through every borough, every CUNY campus, and every public school. Open the door. Hire across all five boroughs. If you want New York’s talent, start with New Yorkers.

Here’s my challenge: the next time someone publishes a “Best Places to Work” list, include the companies building the strongest pathways for New York City students. Those are the employers investing in the future workforce, expanding opportunity, and gaining a competitive edge. That’s how you build a stronger company. That’s how you build a stronger city.

Small businesses are the backbone of New York City’s economy, and that’s not a slogan; it’s arithmetic. More than 200,000 small businesses employ over half of this city’s private-sector workforce. Nearly nine in ten have fewer than twenty employees. A third are minority-owned. When we talk about small business, we are talking about the majority of working New Yorkers. So if we want small businesses to hire locally, we must meet them halfway with evidence, not hope. Supplement wages. Subsidize training that’s proven to work. Fund the intermediaries that connect neighborhood talent to the businesses ready to hire. That is how economic development stops being a press release and becomes a paycheck.

City Hall: as you debate the future of the New York City Economic Development Corporation, remember that the work is waiting.

Developers don’t just shape our skyline — they should help shape our workforce. If you want to build in New York, help build New Yorkers. Every major development should begin with a workforce plan that outlines how local residents will be recruited, trained, and hired, and end with public reporting on whether those commitments were met. Local hiring is not a nice-to-have in an economic development deal. It is the deal.

What does investment really mean for New York? It means uniting economic development and workforce development into a single, focused agenda. For too long, we have recruited companies on one track and prepared our people on another, only to be surprised when the two did not connect. It is time to change that.

Tie paid internships and apprenticeships directly to growth sectors. Make wage subsidies and training dollars follow real hiring commitments. Build wraparound support into every pathway, because that is what makes talent stick. Negotiate employer partnerships like development deals, with jobs for New Yorkers as a term, not a talking point. When every economic development dollar carries a workforce commitment, investment stops being a cost and becomes a growth strategy for the city.

Upfront investment starts with confidence: confidence not only in this city but also in our public schools, CUNY, workforce organizations, community partners, and labor institutions. It means recognizing that New York’s greatest competitive advantage isn’t something we have to import — it’s the talent we’ve already cultivated. The talent is here. The infrastructure is here. What New York needs now is the commitment to invest in both.

Last week, Mayor Zohran Mamdani and the City Council announced a $125.8 billion Fiscal Year (FY) 2027 budget. The budget contains major investments in housing, transit, libraries, and CUNY, all of which are important levers for expanding economic mobility and connecting New Yorkers to good jobs and sustainable career pathways. In his remarks, Mayor Mamdani declared that “working people deserve a city hall that delivers for them every single day.” We agree — which is why it is striking that a budget framed around working people contains few, if any, mentions of jobs and workforce development. Below, we highlight the wins that will help remove barriers to work and training, while also identifying where the budget falls short of the workforce vision New York City needs.

Advocacy wins

Preserving NYCBenefits. The budget preserved funding for NYCBenefits, a critical program that helps New Yorkers apply for and navigate public benefits. The program was put on the chopping block during budget negotiations but was saved thanks to advocacy by NYCETC members. Notably, when asked at the announcement whether the program survived, the administration confirmed it was funded but offered no figure — a reminder that our members’ vigilance will be needed as allocations are finalized.

A commitment to nonprofit advance payments. At the budget announcement, the administration confirmed it “will send all eligible nonprofits the 50% advance payments” required under Council law. For workforce providers who have long absorbed the cash-flow strain of late city payments, this commitment matters as much as any individual funding line — and we will hold the administration to it. Timely payments are not just a contracting issue; they are essential to keeping community-based workforce organizations stable, staffed, and able to serve New Yorkers.

Finance Chair Linda Lee acknowledged this advocacy directly, giving “a shout out to all of our advocates and providers that were outside City Hall” guiding the Council’s priorities. Those conversations — loud outside and quiet in the halls, as she put it — are exactly the work NYCETC members do every budget season.

Strengthening education and training pathways

Big win for adult literacy programming. The City Council has consolidated all Adult Literacy Initiative and Adult Literacy Forward funding and programs into a single $14.5 million funding stream: NYC Results and Impact in Student Education (NYC RISE), with Adult Literacy Forward. The consolidation will allow for a better funding rate and more flexibility for program design. This is a meaningful step toward strengthening foundational skills programming that helps New Yorkers access training, employment, and long-term career mobility.

Expanding key CUNY programs. The FY27 budget reinforces New York City’s commitment to expanding educational opportunity and strengthening the workforce through targeted investments in CUNY’s student success initiatives. The restoration of $4.5 million for Accelerated Study in Associate Programs (ASAP) and $9.1 million for Accelerate, Complete, and Engage (ACE) will continue to provide the comprehensive wraparound supports—including advising, financial assistance, and academic coaching—that have made these programs national models for improving student retention, graduation, and career outcomes.

The budget also includes $800,000 to expand CUNY Disability Services, ensuring that more students with disabilities have access to the accommodations and support they need to succeed in higher education and transition into meaningful careers.

In addition, the $3 million investment in CUNY Reconnect will help re-engage adult learners who have some college credits but no degree, connecting thousands of New Yorkers back to higher education and creating pathways to family-sustaining employment in high-demand industries.

Early Childhood Workforce Development: The budget’s $2.5 million investment in early childhood workforce development is an important recognition that expanding access to early childhood education requires an equally strong commitment to the workforce that delivers it. As New York City continues to invest in initiatives such as 2-K and expanded child care access, building a robust pipeline of qualified educators through recruitment, training, credential attainment, and career advancement will be essential to meeting demand and ensuring high-quality care for children and families.

Removing barriers to work and training

Expanding Fair Fares. The budget allocates $54 million more toward the MTA’s Fair Fares program and raises eligibility to residents earning up to 200% of the federal poverty level — what the Speaker called “the largest expansion of Fair Fares in Council history,” reaching nearly 1.3 million working New Yorkers. The Speaker’s framing echoed our own: these are New Yorkers who rely on subways, buses, and paratransit to get to work and school and to access opportunity. The cost of transportation is often a major barrier to accessing jobs, education, training programs, and career support, so we are heartened to see these major investments in public transit access.

Ending the litigation around CityFHEPS and expanding the program. The city agreed to end litigation over the CityFHEPS housing rental voucher program and expand its eligibility to support more New Yorkers transitioning to permanent housing, backed by what the Mayor described as a $175 million investment in a new voucher program to help New Yorkers stay in their homes. More access to stable housing is essential to workforce development. One structural change deserves attention, however: as the Speaker explained, the accompanying legislation shifts the program “from an entitlement program to one that is subject to appropriations.” That change contains costs today but leaves the program exposed in future budget cycles — NYCETC members whose participants rely on housing vouchers should watch this closely.

Fully funding libraries. After years of uncertain budget cycles, the budget establishes a permanent baseline of $31.7 million for New York City’s three library systems. Libraries are key hubs for workforce development programming, providing career services, hosting trainings and job fairs, and connecting New Yorkers to essential social services.

Investing in the future workforce

Early childhood education. We’re encouraged by the expansion of early childhood education, including the introduction of 2-K. However, this must come with a commitment to scaling up the childcare workforce — an expansion of seats without an expansion of trained, fairly compensated early childhood educators will not succeed.

Expanding NYC Kids RISE. The budget increases the NYC Kids RISE savings account contribution from $100 to $1,000 per New York City kindergartener, creating what the Speaker Menin called the nation’s largest universal college savings program. Importantly, the Speaker herself emphasized that the funds “can be used for vocational school” as well as community college or a four-year degree, citing the near-doubling of lifetime earnings that comes with continued education. We welcome this career-pathways framing — and we would challenge the city to match it: if savings accounts are among the most effective tools against income inequality, so is investment in the training programs those dollars will one day flow to.

Discretionary investments in workforce development

Overall, funding for the Small Business Services and Workforce Development Initiatives declined by $708,573 (-2.1%), from $33,961,475 to $33,252,902. Most major workforce initiatives were maintained at prior-year levels, with only modest reallocations and a handful of new investments.

Key Takeaways

• The Job Training and Placement Initiative remained the largest workforce investment at $8.45 million.
• Most core workforce development programs—including Green Jobs Corps, Technology Incubators, Made in NYC, CDFIs, Job Training and Placement, Support for Immigrant and Women Workers, Pride at Work—were funded at identical levels in both fiscal years.
• The largest reduction was BID Containerization, which dropped by just over $3 million and shifted from SBS to DSNY administration.
• The FY27 budget introduced a significant new $2.1 million investment in Nontraditional Worker Organizing and Education — one of the few genuinely new workforce commitments in the budget — will “support grassroots labor organizations dedicated to serving deliveristas and other vulnerable workers across the city, including targeted outreach to and educational empowerment of nontraditional workers regarding their legal rights and the facilitation of direct connections to recently enacted city protections.”
• Workforce safety and labor-focused investments increased, including:
  • Construction Site Safety Training (+$275,000)
  • Day Laborer Workforce Initiative (+$100,000). The initiative supports day labor worker centers across the five boroughs, providing day laborers with job referrals, wage theft clinics, “know your rights” trainings, referrals to critical services, and workplace development. The $100,000 increase brings this initiative’s total funding to $4,070,000.
  • MWBE Leadership Associations (+$100,000)
• The Worker Cooperative Business Development Initiative decreased by $159,999, while Chamber on the Go and Small Business Assistance declined by $111,295.

Room for improvement

For all of these wins, the FY27 budget treats workforce development as an afterthought rather than a strategy. The Mayor closed his remarks by describing this budget as a model of “how to place working people at the heart of our political decisions.” We share that aspiration — but a budget that places working people at its heart must invest not only in the conditions that make work possible, but in the systems that connect New Yorkers to careers: sector-based training, career navigation, and the community-based workforce organizations that deliver these services. On that front, this budget is largely silent.

Level funding for Council workforce initiatives, while welcome, does not keep pace with rising costs or growing demand. We also note the administration’s emphasis on having “scoured for savings” and “found efficiencies” — language that too often precedes reduced capacity at the very agencies our members contract with. As implementation begins, NYCETC and our members will monitor how these efficiencies are implemented at SBS, DYCD, and HRA, and we will continue to press the administration and the Council to match their investments in education and affordability with an equally ambitious vision for jobs and workforce development. The Mayor has promised that every budget to come “will build on the principles established here.” We intend to make sure workforce development is among them.

Suggested reading

• From the Mayor’s Office: Mayor Mamdani, Speaker Menin Reach Handshake Agreement on Balanced Fiscal Year 2027 Budget
• From the City Council Speaker’s Office: New York City Council Adopts Fiscal Year 2027 Budget
• Budget Resources: NYC Mayor’s Office of Management and Budget website; NYC Council Budget website; FY27 New York City Council Schedule C
• Citizens Budget Commission: Statement on the NYC Fiscal Year 2027 Budget Agreement. “If the economy and revenues remain strong the City will be stable in the near term, and higher than projected revenues may yet shrink future gaps. Still the budget is unprepared for a slowdown or recession: The Rainy Day Fund is far too small and next year’s budget cushion remains slim.”
• Opinion: Why I voted no on the $126 billion budget, by Councilmember Althea Stevens

Committee Chairs Virginia Maloney and Julie Won initiated the hearing with questions regarding the current state of the GEAP’s marquee items. Sam Jung, Senior Vice President of Green Economy at the NYC Economic Development Corporation and Doug Lipari, Executive Director of the NYC Office of Talent and Workforce Development provided follow-up testimony from the executive branch. 

The conversation was directly shaped by an NYCETC report that situated the green economy in the current moment and helped inform Council perspectives.

Key Takeaways

• The State of the Green Economy in the Current Administration is Unclear. With no permanent leadership at the New York City Economy Development Corporation (NYCEDC), no stated plans for an updated green economy action plan that factors in the current realities of state and federal climate policies and funding or private investments, including previously planned offshore wind deployments, and few specific green economy items stated in the latest draft budget, the relevance of the 2024 plan remains to be determined.
• Questions Remain on Green Job Growth and Data: According to the Plan, the green economy was anticipated to grow from 130,000 jobs in 2021 to 382,000 jobs by 2040—with 70% of those jobs transitioning from existing, non-green to green jobs (e.g. a banker financing a solar farm rather than an oil pipeline), and 30% of them being net new (e.g. deployment of new technologies like offshore wind). However, only 2,000 green jobs were added to the city in 2023, according to data from the Center for an Urban Future. Estimates on the number of green economy apprenticeships, or green jobs attributable to Community Hiring, key workforce pillars of the plan, were not available.
• Plans for Five-Borough Green Training Centers have Evolved: Another key workforce pillar of the plan, a commitment to develop a green training facility in each borough, has advanced in a different form than was articulated in the 2024 strategy. It currently includes (i) SolarOne’s Environmental Education Center, which opened at Stuyvesant Cove, Manhattan, in 2025; (ii) Fordham University’s Bronx Green Jobs Center, which received $3 million from EDC and will open at East Fordham Road at the end of 2026; (iii) the BATWorks innovation hub, a $100 million investment that is slated to open in Sunset Park, Brooklyn, in 2028; and a $10 million investment in CUNY will produce additional sites with (iv) Queensborough Community College and (v) College of Staten Island, with opening dates to be determined.

What Comes Next: Our Take on What It Will Take

NYCETC and many of our partners—including The Green Launchpad, JobsFirstNYC, Consortium for Worker Education, Stacks+Joules, Green City Force, The HOPE Program, Andromeda Community Initiative, Fordham University, Solar One, and SBIDC—provided public testimony amplifying many shared goals for building a green economy in the current moment. These included:

• Seeing workforce not as charity, but as a vital business service that delivers operational outcomes and is embedded into economic growth and justice
• Leveraging the existing activities of stakeholders across the five boroughs, including workforce training nonprofits, industrial businesses, chambers of commerce and business service providers, private and nonprofit real estate
• Increasing transparency on the progress of the GEAP’s implementation and adjusting the strategy in light of market changes, so that even non-governmental stakeholders across the city can understand gaps and contribute to filling them

NYCETC CEO Gregory J. Morris’s testimony focused on (1) centering City government as the anchor employer in the green economy, and (2) having City government model effective workforce practices through a Full-Cycle Model of Green Workforce Development in which agencies themselves provide career exploration, preparation, access, launch, and advancement for New Yorkers, from schools to mid-career. 

NYCETC also submitted a full policy memorandum that includes the following recommendations: 

1. Pilot the Full-Cycle Model of Green Workforce Development in City Government: Direct key agencies (Department of Environmental Protection, Department of Parks and Recreation, Metropolitan Transportation Authority, Department of Transportation, and Department of Sanitation) to serve as demonstration agencies by expanding career exposure, strengthening work-based learning opportunities, increasing exam frequency, and creating more transparent pathways into climate-critical civil service titles. If this model can work inside the City’s own famously slow hiring bureaucracy, it becomes the most credible, battle-tested template we have for scaling the private green economy — because it will have been proven on the hardest case first. 

2. Explore The Green Launchpad as a model for New York City’s industry partnership strategy: Convened by NYCETC, the NYC Energy Efficiency Workforce Coalition brings employers, utilities, workforce organizations, and training providers together to define occupations, competencies, career pathways, and hiring needs using a common language. Rather than beginning with available training programs, the Coalition starts with employer demand and aligns workforce investments to meet real hiring needs. As the City refines its industry partnership strategy, The Green Launchpad provides a practical framework that could strengthen employer engagement and inform future partnerships across additional green economy sectors. 

3. Launch Green Economy Career Navigators: Place dedicated navigators in community colleges, Workforce1 centers, and community-based organizations to help New Yorkers understand career options, access training, stack credentials, and connect to employment opportunities in the green economy. 

4. Create a GEAP Accountability Framework: Require the Administration to identify the priority occupations, workforce investments, hiring targets, and performance metrics necessary to achieve the goals of the Green Economy Action Plan. 

5. Establish a Green Economy Workforce Implementation Working Group: Building on the foundation established by the former Green Economy Advisory Council, this body would bring together NYCETC, employers, labor, workforce providers, educational institutions, City agencies, utilities, philanthropy, and the Green Economy Network to ensure the City’s workforce strategy evolves in step with industry needs. Unlike the previous advisory structure, the Working Group should be designed as an active implementation body that ensures that the broader green workforce ecosystem plays a meaningful role in advancing New York City’s green economy.

Watch the Hearing

A recording of the hearing is available on the City Council’s website.

• From 1 hour 53 minutes, watch testimony from Gregory J. Morris, NYCETC; Keri A. Faulhaber, JobsFirstNYC; Angela N. Son, The Green Launchpad; and Dr. Christopher Malone, Consortium for Worker Education.
• From 2 hours 3 minutes, Jonathan Spooner, Stacks+Joules; Sindri Manzanares, Green City Force; Jako Douglas-Borren, The HOPE Program; and Sophia Oliveira Ricci, Andromeda Community Initiative.
• From 2 hours 13 minutes, Travis Proulx, Fordham University; Miquela Craytor, SBIDC; and Stephen Levin, Solar One.