Spotlight: Watching the Workforce – Introducing the Comptroller’s NYC Agency Staffing Dashboard

Introduction

The New York City government employs a municipal workforce of more than 280,000 full-time employees.[1] These include positions often thought of—such as teachers, sanitation workers, police officers, and firefighters—as well other critical workers including public benefit coordinators, city planners, child protective specialists, maintenance workers, and building inspectors (and, of course, accountants, auditors, and budget analysts).

Following the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, the size of the City’s full-time workforce began to decline considerably from a pre-pandemic high, and the City has since struggled to retain and recruit employees.[2] This resulted in historically high numbers of vacant positions over the past several years—positions that are authorized in the City budget, but unfilled. The Comptroller’s Office has highlighted this trend—and the deleterious impact it has had on the provision of services—in several reports.

Over last summer and fall, the City saw an uptick in the number of its full-time employees. This followed increased hiring efforts citywide, the introduction of a hybrid work option for some City employees, and a new round of collectively bargained wage increases agreed upon last spring. Growth, however, has stagnated following a hiring freeze implemented by the Adams Administration last October as part of its Program to Eliminate the Gap (PEG), although the freeze was eased in February. The City has also reduced the number of authorized but vacant positions to close budget gaps. As of the end of May, the City’s full-time, active workforce stood at 284,201, 94.1 percent of its pre-pandemic employment peak.  The City currently has a workforce vacancy rate of 5.7 percent, or 17,137 vacancies, down from a high of 8.4 percent, or 26,050 vacancies, in November 2021, but well above the pre-pandemic level of approximately 2 percent.

Using data from the brand new NYC Agency Staffing Dashboard launched by the Comptroller’s Office today, this Spotlight examines how the number of authorized and actual full-time City employees have changed over time and highlights how different agencies have fared. This new dashboard—which will be updated monthly, and includes data going back to FY 2017—allows the public to access up-to-date information on City staffing by agency.

While the vacancy rate has come down from the high levels following the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, additional work remains for the City to recruit and retain the diverse talent needed to effectively deliver services. In its report, Title Vacant, this Office outlined a variety of strategies for the City to build its workforce. These include expediting hiring for certain positions, allowing higher rates of pay for starting salaries (within agencies’ budget constraints),[3] and providing systematic reporting on hiring outcomes. Greater transparency, such as that provided by the Comptroller’s Office’s NYC Agency Staffing Dashboard will allow stakeholders to readily access trends and identify areas of concern.

Citywide Trends

Workforce Peaks and Pandemic Plummets

In the years preceding the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, both the City’s actual full-time workforce and the number of authorized full-time positions had been growing steadily. (The number of full-time authorized positions is the total number or ceiling that each agency is allowed to hire, which are included in each of the City’s four financial plan releases each year. The actual or active full-time workforce are those positions that are filled.)[4]

When Mayor Bill de Blasio took office in January 2014 the City had an actual full-time workforce of 271,411 employees. By July 2016, the first month of FY 2017, and the beginning of this report’s study period, it had grown to 287,620 and reached a peak of 302,143 in January 2020 (for a total increase of 11.3 percent over those six years).[5] Agencies with notable increases in actual employees include the Department of Education (which began universal pre-k during this time), Police Department, Fire Department, Administration for Children’s Services and Department of Health and Mental Hygiene. For the study period, the number of authorized positions grew from 296,488 at the start of FY 2017 to 307,175 positions in January 2020, with the City’s vacancy rate (the share of authorized but unfilled positions) hovering at around 2 percent.

As shown in Chart S1, both the authorized positions and actual number of employees fell steadily on the heels of the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic as workers left City employment and the Administration reduced authorized but vacant positions in cost-saving efforts due to the recession at the beginning of the pandemic, in the months prior to Federal aid. At the same time, the City tightened a hiring freeze on non-essential positions, which had been introduced before the pandemic began in February 2019.[6] The number of authorized positions fell from 302,416 in July 2020 to 299,472 in January 2021 (a reduction that was carried into FY 2022 as well)[7]. The size of the City’s actual full-time workforce fell from 299,823 to 293,757 over the same period.

Several months later, bolstered by the receipt of Federal COVID aid from the American Rescue Plan and the Coronavirus Response and Relief Supplemental Appropriations Act and reflected in the City’s FY 2022 Executive Budget, the number of authorized positions increased above pre-pandemic levels reaching 308,619 positions at the start of FY 2022 (beginning July 2021). This included the partial restoration of positions reduced in the January 2021 Plan for hiring and attrition management, positions for the expansion of 3-K and mental health programs in the Department of Education, and support for various health initiatives at the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene.

Actual staffing levels, however, continued to fall, especially following the implementation of the City’s return-to-office for those employees that had been working remotely since March 2020. In May 2021, the City first required employees working from home to return to the office. Because of limits it placed on occupancy to allow for social distancing, hybrid schedules were needed. In September 2021 however, the de Blasio Administration required a full return to full-time work in office for Mayoral agencies.[8] At the same time, the City instituted a vaccine mandate for its entire workforce, with unvaccinated employees placed on unpaid leave. By November 2021, the month the vaccine mandate went into effect for all employees, the number of active full-time employees had fallen to 283,809, a drop of 6,129 from August 2021 and roughly one-third of the cumulative decline of 18,334 position (6 percent) from the pre-pandemic peak.[9] This decline in actual employees, in combination with the increased authorized hiring capacity due the Federal COVID aid led to an increasing the number of vacant positions and widening the vacancy rate, which rose to 8.4 percent in November 2021 (FY 2022).

Chart S1

Source: Office of the New York City Comptroller NYC Agency Staffing Dashboard, Mayor’s Office of Management and Budget

Note: Includes full-time employees/positions only, full-time equivalents are excluded. Plan values are assigned to specific months – July through October are assigned the Adopted Plan value, November and December are the November Plan value, January through March are the Preliminary Plan value, April through May are the Executive Plan value, and June is the final June Plan value. Data on actual full-time employment is preliminary for April through May FY 2024; they are derived from initial payroll results and have not yet been published by OMB.

Cuts to authorized but vacant positions reduced the vacancy rate, but actual full-time workforce continued to decline

When Mayor Eric Adams took office, the number of authorized full-time positions was at a peak of 309,859. In its first budget, released in February 2022, the Adams Administration reduced the total number of authorized positions in the current fiscal year to 306,291, largely as part of its Program to Eliminate the Gap (PEG). A year later, in its January 2023 Plan, the Administration again reduced the number of authorized positions in the current fiscal year to 302,617 as part of the PEG. While these cuts trimmed the number of authorized positions by over 7,000, it had a small impact on lowering the vacancy rate, which fell from 8.4 percent in November 2021 to 7.6 percent in April 2023, as the size of the actual full-time workforce continued to decline, falling by 3,307 employees (from 283,809 to 280,502) over the same period.

Rebound Then Halt: The Stall After Months of Momentum

Beginning in May 2023, the City saw the first sustained uptick in the number of full-time employees since the pre-pandemic period. At that juncture, new rounds of collective bargaining agreements were being negotiated and settled, incorporating wage increases and flexible work pilot programs, including a hybrid work option for some City employees.[10] Concurrently, the City organized hiring halls in an effort to fill the over 23,000 open public service positions at that time, which were part of efforts to streamline and hasten the City’s hiring and civil service processes.[11] [12] Over this period the number of actual full-time employees rose by over 4,000—from 280,502 in April 2023 to 284,569 in November 2023.

This growth was short-lived, however. In order to close budget gaps, the Adams Administration implemented a new hiring freeze in October 2023. (The City’s pandemic-related 2-for-1 restriction in hiring remained in effect through April 2023).[13] [14] It also reduced authorized positions by 1,064 in FY 2024 (from 302,402 as of budget adoption to 301,338 as of the most recent April 2024 financial plan) largely through the elimination of vacancies as part of another PEG in November 2023, offset by some increases in successive plans. Growth in actual positions has since stagnated. In February, the Adams Administration eased the hiring freeze, now allowing 2-for-1 hiring in agencies again. As of May 2024, the City’s actual full-time workforce totaled 284,201, 94.1 percent of the pre-pandemic peak, down very slightly from November 2023. The vacancy rate stood at 5.7 percent.

Variation in Employee Categories

The City’s workforce is composed of three main classes of employees (found in the Dashboard as “Employee Categories”). They are: pedagogical, such as teachers, principals, and professors, which account for 43.0 percent of the City’s actual full-time workforce in May 2024 and the overwhelming majority of which work for the City’s Department of Education; civilian, such as caseworkers, community associates, and administrative positions, (36.2 percent); and uniform positions such as firefighters, police and correction officers, and sanitation workers (20.8 percent).

Chart S2

Source: Office of the New York City Comptroller NYC Agency Staffing Dashboard, Mayor’s Office of Management and Budget

Note: Includes full-time employees/positions only, full-time equivalents are excluded. Data on actual full-time employment is preliminary for April through May FY 2024; they are derived from initial payroll results and have not yet been published by OMB and is incorporated in the Actual values for each employee category.

Chart S2 shows how the number of authorized positions and actual employees in each category has changed since the beginning of FY 2017. Prior to the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, the number of actual full-time employees in each category was growing, particularly among civilian and pedagogical positions.

In absolute terms, the greatest decline in the number of actual full-time employees since the pre-COVID-19 pandemic employment peak were civilians—falling by 8,025 or 7.2 percent from January 2020 through May 2024. This is followed by uniform employees, which experienced the greatest decline in terms of percentage—falling by 6,789 employees or 10.3 percent from January 2020 through May 2024. This was largely driven by changes in the actual workforce at the Police Department (NYPD) and the Department of Correction (DOC), discussed in more detail in the following section. Lastly, pedagogical employees declined by 3,128 or 2.5 percent over the same period.

The number of actual pedagogical and uniform employees trended closer to their authorized amounts in pre-pandemic years, compared with civilians. In fact, the vacancy rate for pedagogical positions averaged around 1 percent from July 2016 through January 2020, and for uniform positions actual employment averaged 2 percent above authorized levels during the same period. On the other hand, the civilian vacancy rate averaged 6 percent.

The number of vacant positions increased for each category during the pandemic. For pedagogical positions, the vacancy rate peaked at 9.6 percent in November 2021 (FY 2022). The increased rate reflected both the growth in the number of authorized positions at DOE funded through Federal COVID relief funds, and that the City’s actual pedagogical workforce dropped sharply that month when the City’s vaccine mandate went into effect for all workers. As of May 2024, the pedagogical vacancy rate has come down to 6.2 percent. This was the result of both an uptick in the number of full-time actual employees (an increase of 2,569 employees since the nadir in November 2021 to May 2024) and a decrease in authorized positions (2,016 decline over the same period).

For civilian positions, the vacancy rate peaked at 12.4 percent in August 2022 (FY 2023). Authorized positions were reduced in FY 2021 to achieve savings during the pandemic but were later increased in FY 2022. The actual civilian workforce continued to decline, falling to a low of 100,363 in August 2022 corresponding to the peak vacancy rate. As of May 2024, the civilian vacancy rate has been almost halved to 6.4 percent; this is more attributable to authorized position reductions to achieve savings targets (4,675 positions less than in August 2022) than it is to net increases to civilian actual employees (2,531 positions more than in August 2022).

Unlike civilian and pedagogical vacancy rates, which peaked during the pandemic era and have since fallen, the uniform vacancy rate has continued to increase (although it remains below the civilian or pedagogical rates). As noted above, the number of actual uniform employees had been slightly higher than the number of authorized positions in the pre-pandemic years (yielding a negative vacancy rate). In the Adopted FY 2021 Budget beginning in July 2020, the number of authorized positions declined to account for the closure of correctional facilities and a reduction of authorized positions for the NYPD, furthering this trend. The number of actual uniform employees fell from 63,610 positions in July 2020 to 60,860 in February 2022, when it began a sustained dip below the number of authorized positions. (As a note, uniform positions are hired in classes, which can vary in frequency and size among the different uniform agencies and over time, distinguishing their hiring patterns from civilian and pedagogical employees.)  The number of authorized positions held relatively steady through the present day, while the number of actual full-time employees continued to decline, resulting in sustained vacancies. As of May 2024, the uniform vacancy rate was 3.3 percent.

Highlighted Agencies

In this section, we highlight some of the major agencies (defined here as those that currently have 1,000 actual employees or more) whose workforces fell the most during the pandemic decline (from January 2020 through April 2023).

Departments of Social Services and Homeless Services

Unlike the City workforce overall, the number of full-time employees at two of the City’s social service agencies—the Department of Social Services (DSS), also known as the Human Resources Administration (HRA), and the Department of Homeless Services (DHS)—were declining during the pre-pandemic period.[15] The decline in the size of the actual workforce at both agencies increased following the onset of the pandemic. At DSS, the number of actual full-time employees fell from 13,247 in July 2016 to 12,470 January 2020 (5.9 percent)—the month that overall Citywide employment peaked—and then fell by another 17.1 percent to 10,342 through April 2023. A similar trend can be seen at DHS, whose actual full-time workforce declined by 8.2 percent in the pre-pandemic period, followed by a 19.1 percent decline from January 2020 through April 2023. Since then, as shown in Charts S3 and S4, there has been some recovery at DSS, while DHS staffing has remained relatively flat.  At DSS, the actual full-time workforce grew by 701 employees from April 2023 to present, while DHS grew by 13 employees from April 2023 to April 2024, despite decreasing again in May. Both agencies are still below their pre-pandemic levels and have vacancy rates above the City average—with a current vacancy rate of 9.1 percent for DSS and 9.0 percent for DHS.

As noted in the Comptroller’s Comments on New York City’s Executive Budget, the City’s public assistance caseload has been steadily increasing since the pandemic, as has the provision of supplemental unemployment benefits and rental assistance vouchers. The Mayor’s Management Report for FY 2023 explicitly noted staffing shortages in the Department of Social Services due to attrition as a factor for increased application processing times.[16] This only emphasized the necessity to fill positions at these agencies to support the administration of services.

The number of households in DHS shelters, including both asylum seekers and other households, has grown dramatically over the past two years, exerting increased pressure on the agency. Staffing limitations at DHS may be responsible both for the fact multiple agencies (NYC Health + Hospitals, HPD, and NYCEM) have been called upon to operate shelters, and for the rampant growth in emergency contracts to operate the additional shelter capacity.

Chart S3

Source: Office of the New York City Comptroller NYC Agency Staffing Dashboard, Mayor’s Office of Management and Budget

Note: Includes full-time employees/positions only, full-time equivalents are excluded. Plan values are assigned to specific months – July through October are assigned the Adopted Plan value, November and December are the November Plan value, January through March are the Preliminary Plan value, April through May are the Executive Plan value, and June is the final June Plan value. Data on actual full-time employment is preliminary for April through May FY 2024; they are derived from initial payroll results and have not yet been published by OMB.

Chart S4

Source: Office of the New York City Comptroller NYC Agency Staffing Dashboard, Mayor’s Office of Management and Budget

Note: Includes full-time employees/positions only, full-time equivalents are excluded. Plan values are assigned to specific months – July through October are assigned the Adopted Plan value, November and December are the November Plan value, January through March are the Preliminary Plan value, April through May are the Executive Plan value, and June is the final June Plan value. Data on actual full-time employment is preliminary for April through May FY 2024; they are derived from initial payroll results and have not yet been published by OMB.

Department of Correction

Chart S5

Source: Office of the New York City Comptroller NYC Agency Staffing Dashboard, Mayor’s Office of Management and Budget

Note: Includes full-time employees/positions only, full-time equivalents are excluded. Plan values are assigned to specific months – July through October are assigned the Adopted Plan value, November and December are the November Plan value, January through March are the Preliminary Plan value, April through May are the Executive Plan value, and June is the final June Plan value. Data on actual full-time employment is preliminary for April through May FY 2024; they are derived from initial payroll results and have not yet been published by OMB.

From FY 2017 until the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, the number of actual full-time employees at the Department of Correction (DOC) remained relatively flat and closely mirrored the number of authorized positions. (In this section staff includes both uniform and civilian positions at DOC.) Since January 2020, however, the number of actual full-time DOC workforce has fallen by 3,927 employees or 34 percent, the greatest decline in full-time employees by share over that time period for any major agency. As shown in Chart S5, the number of authorized positions was reduced by nearly 1,900 positions at the start of FY 2021 in July 2020, which was part of the Mayor’s May 2020 Executive Budget and largely attributable to the closure of correctional facilities (about 1,600 positions), and corresponded to a steady reduction in the number of people in custody, over an even longer period of time, falling from an average daily jail population of 9,500 in 2017 to 4,921 in 2021, as shown in the Comptroller’s Department of Correction Dashboard. This resulted in the number of actual employees exceeding the number of authorized positions until October 2021. The size of the workforce has continued to decline, even as the average daily jail population has risen back over 6,000. As of May 2024, DOC had 7,489 full-time employees and a vacancy rate of 14.8 percent, among the highest current vacancy rates among major agencies. (For more information on DOC staffing trend see the Comptroller’s Comments on New York City’s Executive Budget.)

New York Police Department

Chart S6

Source: Office of the New York City Comptroller NYC Agency Staffing Dashboard, Mayor’s Office of Management and Budget

Note: Includes full-time employees/positions only, full-time equivalents are excluded. Plan values are assigned to specific months – July through October are assigned the Adopted Plan value, November and December are the November Plan value, January through March are the Preliminary Plan value, April through May are the Executive Plan value, and June is the final June Plan value. Data on actual full-time employment is preliminary for April through May FY 2024; they are derived from initial payroll results and have not yet been published by OMB.

Like DOC, the size of NYPD’s actual full-time workforce fluctuated closely around its authorized level prior to the pandemic. While the number of authorized positions held relatively steady around 52,000, the number of actual NYPD employees, including both civilian and uniform, grew slightly by just over 1,400 (2.8 percent) from the beginning of the study period to January 2020. Since then, however, the actual full-time NYPD workforce has fallen by 4,985 employees or 9.5 percent, despite a small uptick of 363 employees between April and May 2024, due to the start of a new officer class.

The number of authorized NYPD positions was reduced at the start of FY 2021 (beginning in July 2020) as part of that year’s adopted budget passed in June 2020. This included the elimination two training classes, which resulted in a reduction of 1,163 uniform authorized positions,[17] a reduction announced by Mayor de Blasio following the George Floyd protests. The NYPD’s actual workforce also declined during that period, falling from 51,429 employees in June 2020 to 49,412 in October 2020 (3.9 percent decline). The actual full-time workforce at the NYPD continued its decline over the next several years while the authorized number of positions remained relatively stable. As of May 2024, the NYPD had 47,216 actual full-time employees and a vacancy rate of 4.0 percent.

The City has active recruitment campaigns underway, including television, print, and subway ads, for both NYPD and the Department of Correction.

Department of Finance

Chart S7

Source: Office of the New York City Comptroller NYC Agency Staffing Dashboard, Mayor’s Office of Management and Budget

Note: Includes full-time employees/positions only, full-time equivalents are excluded. Plan values are assigned to specific months – July through October are assigned the Adopted Plan value, November and December are the November Plan value, January through March are the Preliminary Plan value, April through May are the Executive Plan value, and June is the final June Plan value. Data on actual full-time employment is preliminary for April through May FY 2024; they are derived from initial payroll results and have not yet been published by OMB.

The Department of Finance (DOF) is tasked with the administration and collection of City revenues, including property taxes, business taxes, parking tickets and violations, court mandates, and others. As shown in Chart S7, the agency’s actual full-time workforce grew by 8.6 percent in the pre-pandemic period through January 2020. Since then, its actual full-time workforce has decreased by 19.1 percent through May 2024—this is despite the exemption of revenue-generating positions from hiring freezes. In contrast to the sustained decline in actual full-time positions, DOF has seen its number of authorized positions increase in recent financial plans—growing by 98 positions (5.2 percent) since the Adopted FY 2024 Financial Plan. As of May 2024, DOF had 1,654 actual full-time employees and a vacancy rate of 16.6 percent, the highest among the City’s major agencies.

Law Department

Chart S8

 Source: Office of the New York City Comptroller NYC Agency Staffing Dashboard, Mayor’s Office of Management and Budget

Note: Includes full-time employees/positions only, full-time equivalents are excluded. Plan values are assigned to specific months – July through October are assigned the Adopted Plan value, November and December are the November Plan value, January through March are the Preliminary Plan value, April through May are the Executive Plan value, and June is the final June Plan value. Data on actual full-time employment is preliminary for April through May FY 2024; they are derived from initial payroll results and have not yet been published by OMB.

The Law Department represents the City in legal matters. The number of full-time actual employees grew by 23.3 percent in the pre-pandemic period from 1,422 employees in July 2016 to 1,753 employees in January 2020. It has since declined by 19.4 percent as of May 2024. While the department saw brief periods of growth last summer and fall, actual positions have been declining again over the past seven months, as seen in Chart S8. While the agency’s current vacancy rate has fallen from its post-pandemic peak of 17.8 percent in August 2022, to 8.7 percent as of May 2024, this is mostly attributable to the reduction of authorized positions, rather than increases in actual employment.

Department of Housing Preservation and Development

Chart S9

Source: Office of the New York City Comptroller NYC Agency Staffing Dashboard, Mayor’s Office of Management and Budget

Note: Includes full-time employees/positions only, full-time equivalents are excluded. Plan values are assigned to specific months – July through October are assigned the Adopted Plan value, November and December are the November Plan value, January through March are the Preliminary Plan value, April through May are the Executive Plan value, and June is the final June Plan value. Data on actual full-time employment is preliminary for April through May FY 2024; they are derived from initial payroll results and have not yet been published by OMB.

One of the few City agencies that has rebounded in actual full-time employment from its pandemic losses is the Department of Housing Preservation and Development (HPD). HPD’s vacancy rate averaged around 10 percent from the beginning of the study period to March 2019, before falling to an average of 6.8 percent between April 2019 and March 2020. The number of full-time actual employees subsequently fell from 2,437 in March 2020 to a low of 2,203 in August 2022 (FY 2023). At the same time, HPD’s authorized positions increased through FY 2023, widening the gap between actual employees and authorized positions, resulting in a peak vacancy rate of 18.3 percent in August 2022. Since then, HPD’s full-time actual employees have increased to date by 9.8 percent, or 216 employees. HPD’s actual employees as of May 2024 stood at 2,419 only slightly below its study period peak of 2,437, marking a significant recovery. In the Comptroller’s Office’s recent report, Building Blocks of Change, we provide a detailed analysis of trends in HPD’s workforce and its ability to meet it goals, including recommendations to grow the capacity of this new staff.

 

Conclusion

Following the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, the size of the City’s full-time workforce declined considerably, resulting in increased vacancy rates for many of the City’s agencies, and—as this Office has previously reported—negatively impacting the delivery of City services. Pandemic-related policies such as hiring freezes, a required five-day return to office, and vaccine mandates resulted in a continued decline in the City’s actual full-time workforce. In its effort to close budget gaps, the City instituted vacancy reductions, which lowered the number of authorized positions and, as a consequence, vacancy rates – but did not increase agency capacity.

A rebound in the number of actual full-time employees occurred last summer and fall after the City organized focused hiring efforts and agreed to collectively bargained wage increases and more flexible work schedules. The momentum was short-lived, however, after the City implemented another hiring freeze this past October. While the freeze did not result in a large drop in actual full-time employees, the City’s ongoing 2-for-1 hiring replacement restriction continues to limit agencies ability to address capacity gaps.

The data provided in the NYC Agency Staffing Dashboard allows the public to examine changes in the City’s actual employment and authorized positions for these and other agencies, with new data updated monthly. This will allow stakeholders and the public to easily visualize trends, and identify areas of concern, adding to a greater level of transparency about the City’s workforce.

Acknowledgements

This report was prepared by Kieran Persaud, Principal Budget and Policy Analyst, with assistance from Elizabeth Brown, Senior Director of Budget Oversight, and Rosa Charles, Assistant Budget Chief. Archer Hutchinson, Creative Director, led the design, with assistance from Angela Chen, Senior Website Developer.

Appendix

---

Endnotes

[1] The number of full-time employees is not inclusive of full-time equivalent positions, or FTEs, but does include all non-mayoral and mayoral agencies, as well as City-funded and non-City funded positions. It does not include separate but related entities, such as the New York City Housing Authority and NYC Health + Hospitals.

[2] 2024 Update on New York Staffing Trends. Office of the New York State Comptroller. May 2024

[3] Title Vacant was authored in December 2022, prior to the City’s announcement of a tentative contract with District Council 37 (DC37) in February 2023, the first major labor contract under the Adams Administration. This contract set the bargaining pattern for subsequent negotiations for most unions representing civilian and pedagogical titles.

[4] The number of authorized positions included for agencies in each financial plan update can at times become misaligned with funding in their personnel service budget, meaning funding may not support the exact number of positions included.

[5] The Preliminary Financial Plan was released in February 2014, but the Dashboard assigns this value as the authorized positions for January.

[6] The de Blasio Administration implemented a partial hiring freeze in February 2017. This was extended to all non-essential positions in February 2019. (FY 2020 Executive Budget – Message of the Mayor (nyc.gov)) However, new hiring slowed most following the onset of the pandemic. (OSC-Impact of the Pandemic on New York City’s Municipal Workforce). In January 2021 the full freeze was relaxed to 3-for-1 hiring, i.e. when three employees leave, one can be hired. This was further relaxed to a 2-for-1 policy in April 2021.)

[7] Much of the City’s work directly responding to the pandemic, for testing, contact tracing, vaccination, emergency food, etc. was done through contracts and through NYC Health + Hospitals, which are not reflected in this data.

[8] N.Y.C.’s Mayor Directs City Employees to Soon Return to Office Full-Time – The New York Times (nytimes.com)

[9] Department of Correction uniform employees were subject to the vaccine mandate as of December 1, 2021, while all individuals working in Department of Education schools, including those non-City employees, were subject to the vaccine mandate as of September 27, 2021. Mayor de Blasio Announces Vaccine Mandate for New York City Workforce | City of New York (nyc.gov)

[10] Mayor Adams and DC 37 Announce Tentative Contract Agreement, Providing Fair Wage Increases and Other | City of New York (nyc.gov).

[11] ‘Hiring Halls’ help fill city vacancies – The Chief (thechiefleader.com)

[12] Mayor Adams, NYC DCAS’s New York City Government Hiring Halls Reaches Milestone of 1,000 Job Offers | City of New York

[13] Why New York’s City Workers Are Quitting in Droves – The New York Times (nytimes.com)

[14] New York’s Difficulty in Filling Job Vacancies Has Hurt City Services – The New York Times (nytimes.com)

[15] The HRA and DHS were merged into an integrated management structure at the end of FY 2016 near the beginning of this report’s study period. The size of the actual HRA workforce had been declining prior to the merger, while the DHS full-time workforce had been growing. Mayor de Blasio: Comprehensive Homeless Services Plan Increases Focus on Prevention & Rehousing | City of New York (nyc.gov)

[16] Mayor’s Management Report-FY 2023

[17] In April 2020 (FY 2021 Executive Budget) the City first delayed the April officer class to July as a result of challenges due to the COVID-19 pandemic. In June 2020 (Adopted FY 2021 Budget), both the postponed April and original July police officer classes were canceled, resulting in a reduction of 1,163 authorized positions).