Mayor Adams’ NYC summer job program lacks high-pay industries: study

New York City’s ambitious summer jobs program — a priority of Mayor Adams — is falling short of connecting young people with high-paying industries, thanks to managerial missteps and bureaucracy that deter employers from stepping up, said a report released on Thursday.

Fewer than 1% of companies that participated in the Summer Youth Employment Program last year were in the business and finance or technology sectors, the Center for an Urban Future found. By contrast, the study said, 15% of the companies participating were day care centers or camps.

“There’s nothing wrong with a job at a summer camp, but there ought to be a lot more opportunities with higher-wage companies,” said Jonathan Bowles, executive director of the think tank.

“If young people don’t get exposed to those careers, many won’t see that this is in the realm of possibility for their future careers,” Bowles said

Soon after Adams took office, his administration began growing the program to a point where it has persuaded employers to hire 100,000 young people across the city.

Last summer, the program offered jobs at more than 18,000 work sites — including some sites run by large corporations who have hired participants to permanent positions.

Adams has framed the program as a way for youth to gain paid work experience and career exposure, while staying occupied during the summer when crime historically surges.

Summer employment is also a proactive step toward reducing violence and crime, the mayor has said.

“We knew that if we wanted to make our city safe, it cannot be just with policing. It has to be being proactive and interactive,” Adams said at Summer Youth Employment Program’s kickoff event last week in Gowanus, Brooklyn.

In turn, businesses and industries can help shape their future workforce and learn from young people’s fresh perspectives, the Center for an Urban Future report said.

But interviews with more than a dozen companies and company-facing organizations showed that the program’s short duration — just six weeks — is a challenge for employers, who said young people have no time to meaningfully contribute after settling in.

Most youth are matched with programs by a lottery system, increasing the likelihood they have no background — or even interest — in the sector.

According to the city Department of Youth and Community Development, which runs the program, the lottery system is designed to give all applicants an equal shot at a finite number of jobs.

Many teens in the program show up at their jobs without basic knowledge they might need to succeed.

Those factors make the program a tough sell to many employers, said David Fischer, a former executive director of the Mayor’s Office of Youth Employment.

“How much value are you really getting out of somebody who is working six weeks for 25 hours a week who has no previous real training or understanding of your industry?” Fischer asked.

Employers also reported frustration with what they perceived as the city’s preference for supervised in-person work, as many companies have shifted to remote or hybrid work policies.

A few summers ago, at the peak of the pandemic, roughly 100 technology companies offered online, project-based work. Last year, that number plummeted to just 10 technology employers, the Center for an Urban Future study found.

“I think tech employers want to plug in, but there’s a lot of bureaucracy that exists around even just plugging into the program,” said Sarah Brown, chief of staff at the industry association Tech:NYC.

Even before programs begin for the summer, companies reported needing more support to welcome a new class of young people.

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Employers receive minimal training and guidance about how to design and implement programs, or oversee teenagers, according to the report. And most years, applications do not open until March, and companies may not know whether or how many interns to expect until June.

“It’s very little notice,” said Dina Rabiner, vice president of economic development and strategic partnerships at the Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce. “We applied to be a job site in the winter. And now we’re in June and we’ve just found out who we’re getting. Why is that process so long?”

The city’s youth department disputed that characterization, saying employers are being matched much sooner than in previous years.

Mark Zustovich, a spokesman for the agency, said the agency’s outreach has attracted more partners than ever before — including Louis Vuitton, Microsoft, Google, and the NYPD, which hired more than a thousand young people this summer.

“[The Summer Youth Employment Program] has grown dramatically in its 60-year history, and the enhancements we continue to make will help ensure its success in the future,” Zustovich said.

Bowles predicted the lack of representation of high-paying industries will have lasting ramifications on the future local workforce.

“The city’s got to make it clear that we want those employers, and we’re willing to do it on their terms and make it as easy as possible for them,” said Bowles. If not, “we miss a golden opportunity to lay the groundwork for a more equitable economy.”