With uncertain economic times and high unemployment numbers dominating the headlines, the city announced some good news – 5,000 New Yorkers were placed in jobs through its Workforce 1 Career Centers during the first quarter of 2009.
The 5,000 job placements – which is an increase of 23 percent compared to last year’s first quarter – was particularly good news for Queens, which saw the most job placements with 1,799.
“Some might expect a recession to reduce job placements, but we’re determined not to let that happen,” Mayor Michael Bloomberg said on Tuesday, April 14 while making the announcement in the Bronx. “That’s why we increased our job placement goal this year to 20,000 jobs. By expanding the hours at Workforce 1 Career Centers, focusing on growing industries and investing more time and money in training, we’re on track to meet that goal.”
In December of 2008, Bloomberg announced the city was adding evening hours three nights per week and Saturday hours every other week. Thus far in 2009, 5,798 people have been placed in retail, health care, technology, transportation, food services and other fields.
“In this economic climate, we are looking to help businesses in any way that we can,” said Small Business Services (SBS) Commissioner Robert Walsh. “We’ll work with businesses large or small, whether they need one employee or 100.”
One of the areas that the Bloomberg administration looked at was finding fields that are experiencing growth – even during these difficult economic times. Some of these areas include health care services, universities, medical offices and grocery stores.
“In these times, we have a responsibility to do everything we can to help New Yorkers get jobs and keep them, and our training and placement services have proven to be an increasingly effective tool to doing that,” said Deputy Mayor for Economic Development Bob Lieber.
The two Workforce 1 Career Centers in Queens are located at:
168-25 Jamaica Avenue, 2nd Floor, between 168th and 169th Street
Jamaica, NY 11432.
718-557-6755
LaGuardia Community College
29-10 Thomson Avenue, Rm C-400, 4th Floor, between 29th and 30th Street
Long Island City, NY 11101
718-609-2130
