Amazon, Google, JPMorgan Chase and two dozen other major companies have promised to employ 100,000 New Yorkers from underprivileged communities by 2030.
According to a news release, the 27 business titans created the CEO Council for New York Employment to build pathways to in-demand employment for low-income, black, Latino and Asian employees, including 25,000 CUNY students.
The partnership involves businesses from a wide variety of sectors that will work with colleges and non-profits to connect those New Yorkers with jobs, apprenticeships and entry-level positions.
“As companies with a long-standing commitment to the New York area and its residents, 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,” JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon said in a statement.
Dimon will co-chair the council with McKinsey, Accenture, IBM and EY CEOs while Gail Mellow, former president of LaGuardia Community College, will serve as the executive director. Some participating executives include Microsoft’s Satya Nadella, Con Edison ‘s John McAvoy, The New York Times Company’s Meredith Kopit Levien and investment firm BlackRock’s Larry Fink.
The hiring promise from the council comes in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic that struck black and Hispanic New Yorkers especially hard and sparked a national economic downturn that put millions out of jobs.
“Our mission is to ensure people in New York’s most vulnerable communities can access the skills that they need to pursue promising career pathways and benefit from the city’s economic recovery,” Mellow said in a statement.
The pledge also comes on the heels of widespread demonstrations against racism and police violence that shook New York and other cities after the Minneapolis police murder of George Floyd. Several council members — including Dimon, Jeff Bezos of Amazon, and Sundar Pichai of Google — have in recent months shared support for the Black Lives Matter campaign.
