NYC budget official blames job vacancies on lack of remote work, private sector competition

New York City’s top budget official said the vaccination mandate, lack of remote work and competitive salaries in the private sector are some of the reasons the city has been unable to fill tens of thousands of jobs across its agencies — vacancies that are beginning to affect city services.

Jacques Jiha, the city’s Office of Management and Budget director, made those remarks during hours of testimony on the city's preliminary budget — the first step of a lengthy process that decides how the city should spend taxpayer dollars. Jiha told the Council’s finance committee on Monday that the city is trying to remove these “impediments” to keep employees on the city’s payroll.

“We’re pushing the agencies to hire, we’ve been aggressive. As I said, we’re moving from being a passive employer to a more active employer,” Jiha said. “We’re trying to create all of these pieces to make sure we attract as many people as possible to backfill those positions.”

Mayor Eric Adams presented his $102.7 billion preliminary budget in January amid rising expenses that include the handling of the migrant crisis, which Jiha said is expected to cost $4.2 billion by June 2025.

Jiha said the city has currently 23,000 open jobs across various agencies. The Adams administration has eliminated about 4,000 vacant positions since last year.

Councilmember Lincoln Restler of Brooklyn said the vacancies have slowed city services, pointing to the preliminary Mayor’s Management Report that tracks the performance of each agency.

He pointed to the delay in applications for New Yorkers applying to the city’s food stamp program, in which only 42% of applications have been processed by the Human Resources Administration within the required 30 days. That’s down from 71.2% when compared to the same time a year ago, and well below the agency’s own target of 90.6%. The number of new bus lanes built across the city was 6.8 miles in the first four months of the current fiscal year, down by half when compared to the same time a year ago, according to the report.

“We are failing the people who rely on our services because of the mayor’s rigid ideological insistence on shrinking the headcount of the city of New York,” Restler said.

Jiha suggested the reduced headcount isn’t the problem as much as filling the thousands of open existing positions.

“You’re making an ideological case out of something that has no ideology here,” Jiha said. “Agencies have money in their budget to hire people. We told you, ‘Let them hire those people. If there’s more need, then we come back.’”

Jiha — who also blamed the slowdown on the city's overall hiring process — said some gains have been made to retain workers, pointing to a tentative contract deal with DC 37, the city’s largest municipal union representing food service workers, school aides and custodians. Part of the deal, which is expected to be ratified in May, is the creation of a $70 million "equity fund" to provide increased salaries for positions that are difficult to fill and retain. That’s on top of a remote option that’s now being offered — a concession Adams initially resisted.

Councilmembers also suggested the budget office consistently hold job fairs across the city as a way to hire more quickly. Councilmember Althea Stevens, who represents a portion of the west Bronx, said she would be open to partner with the OMB to host a job fair in her district.

“I had a job fair in my district. Over 200 people showed up. So there’s a need for people who want to work,” Stevens said.

The budget hearing process will last for several weeks. It's followed by the mayor’s executive plan that’s released in April, sparking another round of hearings. A final budget is due in June.