A Record High 100,000 NYC Young Adults Head to Work Today for Paid Summer Jobs through City Program

By Yehudit Garmaise

A record-high 100,000 New York City young adults between the ages of 14 and 24 went to work today as part of the city’s Summer Youth Employment Program (SYEP), to make $15 an hour in a variety of jobs in hospitals, the NYPD, the Parks Department, the Department of Transportation, Google, and other public and private companies.

“If we want our young people to strive for a better city, and better lives, we have to create better opportunities,” said Mayor Eric Adams this morning at Maimonides Medical Center, which has been participating in the SYEP for the last 25 years and employed 4,000 students through the program. 

Studies show, the mayor said, that young people who pursue summer employment in places that interest them often continue to pursue those careers.

One woman, for instance, who went through the program and worked in healthcare is thinking about going to medical school.

The deadline to submit applications to NYC’s SYEP, the nation’s largest youth employment program, was May 6, but Mayor Adams has secured funding to ensure the program will continue for years to come.

SYEP participants not only get plentiful chances to explore their career interests and career pathways, but the young adults will learn Mayor Adams proudly said, “financial literacy: how to build credit, how to budget, and how to fill out W-2 forms.”

Although the mayor he did not get his paychecks via direct deposit until he was an adult, 60% of the SYEP participants have done so.

“They are learning early,” said the mayor, who added that participants also will learn skills about how to interact professional in office spaces. “We are going to teach them mindfulness, self-care, how to interact in business environments.”

While working in offices, hospitals, and police departments will be eye-opening, fun, and interesting, SYEP participants also get to go on excursions beyond the four walls of offices. 

“We are going to take them to Wall Street, to the UN, and to City Hall to see how we get stuff done,” the mayor said. “We are going to expose them to this entire city instead of allowing them to believe their block is the globe. 

“The globe goes beyond what their neighborhoods show them every day.”