‘Hiring Halls’ help fill city vacancies

“Let’s get hired!” roared Mayor Eric Adams at the NYC Government Hiring Hall on May 20, 2023 at the Surrogate’s Courthouse at 31 Chambers Street in Brooklyn. 

Thousands of professionally dressed New Yorkers lined up for the opportunity for on-the-spot interviews with more than 15 municipal agencies, including the NYPD, the Administration for Children’s Service, for roles ranging from hourly jobs to entry-level salaried positions.

“Instead of doing the traditional way, where the job seeker takes the city exam and waits for a call back, we’re bringing the jobs forward,” said Dawn Pinnock, the Department of Citywide Administrative Services’ commissioner. “My personal goal is to get as many people hired as possible in the community”

This summer, DCAS is holding city job fairs in all five boroughs to help fill 12,000 city job vacancies, many as a result of the pandemic job loss in March 2020. 

The hiring halls are not traditional job fairs, where job seekers come with a stack of resumes, leave them with an HR rep and then await for a call back that frequently never comes. City officials say these events ensure participants interviews with agencies seeking to fill sometimes dozens and even hundreds of positions, but also information on public employee unions, their benefits to city workers, free resume services and the introduction of QR codes into the hiring process. 

The hope is for the Jobs NYC QR code to assist job seekers in the jam-packed event with registration, a guide to all the agencies’ locations within the hiring halls, and of course the available jobs and their descriptions.

With resumes in hand, representatives got a face-to-face chance meeting with candidates. The interview process included reviewing resumes, going over salary offers, and the benefits that they will receive upon hiring.

“So far we have hired over 1,000 people with these hiring halls,” said Adams, who has attended a few of the hiring halls, meeting and greeting job seekers. 

Addressing high vacancy rate

As of April, city departments had nearly 23,000 vacant positions, with some agencies experiencing vacancy rates of 10 percent or more, Council Member Carmen De La Rosa, who chairs the Civil Service and Labor Committee, said last week. 

“Our people are ready and able to work — we need to meet them where they are,” De La Rosa said in a statement. “I look forward to the continuation of diverse recruitment of our city's workforce that will equip our agencies with the staff to deliver vital services to New Yorkers.”

At the Tangram Shopping Mall in Flushing Queens, May 24, came seeking clerical and legal positions within the Department of Finance, and got on-the-spot interviews. Some got a near-instant job offer. The rapid process is unusual for open and in-demand positions within the city.

DCAS last month said that 46 percent of jobs featured at the hiring halls resulted in a same-day offer. 

The hiring hall not only had job opportunities but paid work-study positions and volunteer opportunities. 

DCAS representatives were also on hand to provide information to college students attending the event hoping to land a position post-graduation. “We offer a chance for a chance to register to vote and opportunities to volunteer in the community in New York Community Boards” said an agency representative said.

The halls also assisted job seekers with many services while being unemployed by having tables set up with housing assistance programs, assistance to public assistance benefits, free job services provided by the New York Public Library and City University Of New York, and continuing education to build important skills and credentials to landing in-demand jobs.

Several more of the hiring events are scheduled. An information session on civil service will take place from 5:30 to 7 p.m. June 8 and an engineering hiring fair is scheduled for 9:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. June 9 in Long Island City. More information is available at https://www.nyc.gov/site/dcas/index.page.