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Hiring Now, Attrition Later

One-Year Hiring Thaw Leaves Budgeted Staff Reduction For Next Mayor

July 13, 2021

Introduction

In the Fiscal Year 2022 Adopted Budget, Mayor Bill de Blasio and the City Council temporarily reversed the City’s hiring and attrition management savings plan.1 The budget restored funds in fiscal year 2022 to facilitate additional hiring, but left the plan to reduce on-board staff by nearly 4,000 in place for fiscal years 2023 to 2025, when it will be up to the next Mayor to make the hard choices. Furthermore, the Adopted Budget authorized headcount for fiscal year 2022 is 337,294, nearly the highest ever. (See Figure 1.)

Figure 1. NYC Actual Full-Time and Full-Time Equivalent Headcount, FY2008 to FY2020, and Authorized Headcount, FY2021 to FY2025

City Reverses Course on Hiring Freeze, Temporarily

The Adopted Budget increased the fiscal year 2022 authorized headcount 5,342 positions against April’s Executive Budget, mostly due to a one-year reversal of the partial hiring freeze. Compared to the City’s March 2021 on-board headcount of 313,975, this provides the capacity to hire up to 23,219 full-time and full-time equivalent positions. While the City will not fill all authorized positions, as the Mayor said in his Executive Budget presentation, the City will be filling many current vacancies and increasing the City’s on-board headcount.2 (See Figure 2.)

Figure 2. NYC Budget Savings From Hiring and Attrition Management Initiative, FY2021 to FY2025 (dollars in millions)

The Preliminary Budget included attrition savings due to a hiring freeze that would reduce on-board headcount by 4,937 and would save $292 million in fiscal year 2022, growing to $364 million in fiscal year 2025. (See Figure 2.) However, the Adopted Budget leaves it to the next Administration to exercise restraint. Following restorations in Executive and Adopted Budgets, the fiscal year 2022 attrition savings are now just $30.4 million. However, the savings for fiscal years 2023 to 2025 remain largely unchanged, averaging $283 million annually (3,987 positions). Furthermore, authorized headcount decreases by 5,048 primarily full-time positions from fiscal year 2022 to fiscal year 2023.

Authorized Headcount Increases in Most Agencies

Most agencies’ authorized headcount increases from fiscal year 2021 to fiscal year 2022. (See Table 1.) Authorized levels increase at 44 agencies (a total increase of 11,395 positions), stay level at 21 agencies, and decrease at just 9 agencies (a decrease of 448 positions). Table 1 presents the fifteen agencies whose authorized headcount increases the most in absolute terms. The top two are the Department of Education (4,504 positions or 3.0 percent) and the Department of Parks and Recreation (2,248 positions or 34.2 percent). 

The five agencies whose authorized headcount declines the most are the City University of New York (176 positions), Department of Emergency Management (144 positions), the City Council (55 positions), the Department for the Aging (34 positions) and the Department of Environmental Protection (20 positions).

Table 1. NYC Agencies with Highest Authorized Headcount Increases from FY2021 to FY2022

By Adrian Pietrzak

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Hiring Now, Attrition Later: One-Year Hiring Thaw Leaves Budgeted Staff Reduction For Next Mayor

Footnotes

  1. While the City reports it is continuing its hiring management activities, it is increasing on-board headcount
  2. City of New York, Mayor’s Office of Management and Budget, Fiscal Year 2022 Executive Budget Summary, https://www1.nyc.gov/assets/omb/downloads/pdf/sum4-21.pdf.