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NYC Talent Celebrates Historic Achievements to Make the City More Affordable for Working Families During the Adams Administration

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: December 16, 2025

CONTACT: mbeller@talent.nyc.gov, 212-513-9241

Launched Historic Community Hiring Initiative to Connect New Yorkers to Good Paying Jobs

New Project Labor Agreements Covering more than $8 Billion in City Projects to Build Critical Infrastructure and Deliver Good-Paying, Union Careers

New York – The Office of Talent and Workforce Development (NYC Talent) celebrated a historic 2025 with a series of achievements that help make the City more affordable and livable for working families. This is a culmination of an effort that began in 2022 with the establishment of NYC Talent, which works to ensure all New Yorkers can access good paying careers and employers can access New York City's talent so they can thrive today and in the future. Today NYC Talent is announcing the NYC Workforce Development Board’s 2025 Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA) Local Plan that will shape the City’s workforce strategic priorities for the next four years. This comprehensive and industry informed plan will ensure the City’s investments in workforce development are positioned to address our rapidly changing economy and labor market while making the City more affordable and the best place to raise family.

"We took office with a simple promise: to 'Get Stuff Done,’ and, four years later, our administration can say we delivered that every day for working-class New Yorkers," said New York City Mayor Eric Adams. "We drove shootings to record lows and pushed jobs and small businesses to record highs. We rewrote the playbook on homelessness and mental health to finally get New Yorkers living on our streets the help they need, and, after decades of half-measures, passed historic housing legislation to turn New York into a 'City of Yes.' We overhauled the way our students learn to read and do math, cut the cost of childcare, and forgave medical debt. We eliminated taxes for low-income families, launched free universal after-school programming, and brought cutting-edge apprenticeships to thousands of young people. We got scaffolding off our buildings, trash bags off our streets, and opened up new public spaces for New Yorkers to enjoy. The haters may have doubted us, but the results are clear. On issue after issue, we brought common-sense leadership to create a safer, more affordable city, and our work has changed our city for the better; it will stand the test of time because we made New York City the best place to live and raise a family."

"I am excited to celebrate another historic year of building pathways to good paying jobs and economic mobility to help make our city more affordable and livable for all New Yorkers," said The Office of Talent and Workforce Development Executive Director Doug Lipari. "Through Community Hiring, robust industry partnerships, expansion of apprenticeships, and strategic initiatives, we are ensuring New Yorkers can access training and careers that offer pathways to the middle class and businesses have the local talent they need to thrive."

Highlights include:

Community Hiring – Leveraging the City’s purchasing power by setting workforce goals on City contracts. City vendors must provide employment and apprenticeship opportunities to low-income individuals and those living in low-income communities

  • Launched the city's first-ever Community Hiring effort and released more than 100 procurements valued at over $8 billion in value across a broad range of sectors.
  • In November 2024, the Adams administration announced two historic Project Labor Agreements (PLAs) with the NYC Building and Construction Trades Council of Greater New York and Vicinity (BCTC) that will cover over $1 billion in construction projects. One year later, NYC Talent announced two new PLAs with the BCTC projected to cover more than $7 billion in City capital projects throughout the term.
  • Launched a new digital labor compliance tool to track workforce on construction contracts with prevailing wage requirements, transitioning away from the city’s outdated paper-based process, increasing transparency, and allowing the city to better enforce wage and labor requirements.

Expanding Apprenticeships – doubling the number of apprenticeships to achieve Mayor Adams’ moonshot goal of creating 30,000 apprenticeships by 2030

  • Youth Apprentice Civil Service Title that will place up to 500 young New Yorkers into a paid apprenticeship with an opportunity to take a civil service exam that can lead to full-time employment in City government.

Industry Partnerships – Specialized teams that focus on healthcare, tech, and sustainable infrastructure in collaboration with industry, educational institutions and government partners

  • Secured $1.4 million in new public-private investments to help prepare New Yorkers for green jobs, delivering toward promise of Green Economy Action Plan.
  • NYC Talent’s NYC Tech Talent Pipeline (TTP) helped double the number of computer science graduates at CUNY through its CUNY 2X Tech program in collaboration with CUNY since its launch in 2017.  TTP has helped boost the number of computer science students to nearly 20,000 due in part to its CUNY 2X Tech program, which has improved both career-connected learning and job outcomes since its launch in 2017.
  • NYC Talent’s New York Alliance for Careers in Healthcare helped deliver more than 8,300 Nurse Residents since 2019 – a paid apprenticeship supported by 31 local hospitals.

Strategic programs and initiatives – Collaboration with a range of public and private stakeholders to better connect New Yorkers to jobs, especially jobseekers who face historic employment barriers.

  • Jobs NYC hiring halls and website – a citywide effort to reduce barriers to economic opportunities and deliver workforce development services directly to communities experiencing high unemployment across the five boroughs.
  • NYC Talent's Center for Workplace Accessibility and Inclusion (CWAI) and the New York City Mayor's Office for People with Disabilities (MOPD) announced in July 2025 a hiring milestone for this community of connecting over 1,300 individuals with disabilities to jobs as part of the Mayor’s Plan for People with Disabilities. These efforts have continued, and by the end of 2025, nearly 1700 will be connected.
  • CWAI has partnered with Microsoft to launch a first-of-its-kind Digital Accessibility Training, providing city employees with key resources to create accessible content for all members of the community
  • NYC Talent supported the expansion of Exploring Futures into DYCD programming, leading to its inclusion in the current COMPASS RFP. The program grew from serving 25,091 youth in FY24 to 37,715 in FY25. New K–8 modules will be added through the October 2025 COMPASS RFP to support expanded afterschool programs in schools and community centers.
  • Over the past two years, NYC Talent has advanced the priorities outlined in the Action Plan by coordinating efforts across NYCPS, CUNY, and DYCD. Through this work, NYC Talent has helped city agencies strengthen programs, align services, and make measurable progress toward the shared goal of preparing youth and young adults for career success.

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