The CEOs of banks, tech companies and consulting firms are forming a group to boost hiring from underrepresented groups in New York.
Leaders from 27 firms that represent many of New York’s dominant industries banded together to create the New York Jobs CEO Council, which aims to hire 100,000 people from low-income Black, Latinx and Asian communities by 2030, according to a release.
The co-chairs of the new organization include Jamie Dimon, CEO of JPMorgan Chase; Arvind Krishna, CEO of IBM, and Julie Sweet, CEO of Accenture. Other initial members of the CEO group include Jeff Bezos of Amazon, Satya Nadella of Microsoft; Sundar Pichai of Google and David Solomon of Goldman Sachs.
The coronavirus pandemic has helped exacerbate inequality in U.S. cities, resulting in more job losses and worse health outcomes for people in low-income neighborhoods. Nearly 40% of lower-income Americans lost work as the coronavirus began its assault on the U.S. economy, the Federal Reserve said in May.
“Many New Yorkers are stuck in low-paying jobs that could be lost in the future or are struggling to navigate the labor market” during the pandemic, Dimon said in the release. “We are using our collective power to prepare the city’s workforce with the skills of the future and helping New Yorkers who have been left behind get a foot in the door.”
The group will be led by Dr. Gail Mellow, former LaGuardia Community College president, and plans to help companies hire people for entry-level jobs that put them on a career path. The 100,000 figure includes 25,000 jobs and apprenticeships for students from the City University of New York.
“The new initiative will play an important role connecting underserved communities with career resources and access to New York’s world-class educational institutions,” New York Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo said in a statement.