New York City
Photo: angela weiss/Agence France-Presse/Getty ImagesToday’s economic crisis is exacerbating economic and racial divides and exposing systemic barriers to opportunity. As we begin to rebuild, business leaders need to reaffirm their commitment to benefit all their stakeholders and the communities in which they operate.
When New York companies do well, New Yorkers don’t always share in that success. Even before the pandemic, 400,000 New Yorkers remained unemployed from 2018-19, while 1.2 million job openings went unfilled. With a vast pool of students and a massive educational system, the talent is here. Too often, however, we miss the chance to match high-achieving New Yorkers from every ZIP Code and borough with opportunities at the city’s top employers. Young people in low-income and minority communities feel this failure the most.
Unless we actively work to close the gap, Covid-19 will make matters worse. An inclusive recovery will require collaboration between business, educational institutions, government and civic leaders. That is why today more than two dozen employers and educational institutions are announcing the New York Jobs CEO Council, a joint initiative to transform job training, recruiting and hiring in the city. Participants include Google, IBM, Verizon, Amazon, McKinsey, Microsoft, Memorial Sloan Kettering and the City University of New York.
The council will create sustained pathways for opportunities in the city, better aligning educational programs with skills that employers need as the demands of the labor market rapidly evolve. This will alleviate unemployment—filling currently open jobs through skills training and empowering communities for the jobs of the future.
We will focus on hiring for skills, not necessarily degrees. While credentials are important, an obsessive focus on them unnecessarily prevents qualified, talented people from accessing promising career pathways. A 2017 Harvard Business School study found that as a result of degree requirements, 3 in 5 employers rejected qualified middle-skill candidates with relevant experience. Skills-based hiring will lift the barriers to entry that hold black and Hispanic candidates back.
By bringing together the city’s largest employers, the nation’s largest urban university system, the New York City Department of Education, effective nonprofits and local community leaders, we can finally help connect untapped talent with in-demand jobs. The Jobs Council will make it possible for our companies to hire 100,000 New Yorkers by 2030, including at least 25,000 CUNY students. These are well-paying jobs that will help New Yorkers gain access to economic opportunity and a path to the middle class.
People often say that we must “open the doors” of opportunity. We want to remove those doors completely and ensure New Yorkers are no longer shut out of opportunity in their own city. This will strengthen the city and help all of its residents seize the jobs of today, tomorrow and beyond.
Mr. Dimon is CEO and chairman of JPMorgan Chase. Mr. Matos Rodríguez is chancellor of the City University of New York.
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August 11, 2020 at 09:02AM
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