The New York State Civil Service Commission approved a plan to reduce the requirements for migrants with legal work authorization status who are looking for employment.
“I’m anxious to get this moving quickly, and once they’re approved, we can match people to jobs. They don’t need to be reliant on services any longer, which I think is the objective to not have people supported by taxpayers in our shelters,” Gov. Kathy Hochul said.
Requirements such as proof of education, prior experience and English speaking abilities will be dropped for certain positions, helping migrant workers find employment.
According to a Jan. 12 memo from the Civil Service Commission, there are over 4,000 entry-level roles to be filled. There are an additional 40,000 open positions, according to submissions by private businesses to the state Department of Labor.
These new guidelines will allow the 170,000 migrants who have come to New York since April 2022 to fill these otherwise hard-to-recruit positions. Hochul is in support of the plan to decrease New York’s unemployment rate of 4.5% and to deal with the current influx of migrants.
New York City Mayor Eric Adams hopes to use migrant workers and asylum seekers to remedy the current lifeguard shortage and cut the $352 spent every night by the city to take care of migrant families.
