New York City is investing billions in workforce development, but it seems to be missing the mark by overlooking three powerful engines of opportunity: the arts, public libraries, and the Summer Youth Employment Program (SYEP).
These essential components of the workforce ecosystem train, support, and connect tens of thousands of New Yorkers to jobs, often serving more equitably and effectively than conventional methods.
However, they continue to be marginalized from policy frameworks, underfunded in city budgets, and disconnected from one another.
In order to cultivate an inclusive and future-ready workforce system, it is imperative for New York to recognize these pillars as integral to its infrastructure.
The Arts as Economic Infrastructure
Despite generating over $10.5 billion in economic output and supporting more than 72,000 jobs annually across various sectors such as performance, design, education, and media, the arts are often dismissed as a serious industry.
These jobs foster transferable skills in communication, project management, and digital production, benefiting fields ranging from tourism to technology.
Sadly, the institutions that cultivate this talent—community arts groups, public schools, and nonprofit cultural organizations—remain chronically underfunded and excluded from broader workforce strategies.
This exclusion not only hampers growth but also proves inefficient. Arts organizations often serve as the first employers for young creatives and function as anchor institutions within local economies.
Yet, they frequently contend with late payments, unstable contracts, and insufficient multi-year funding, which undermines job quality.
Moreover, recent federal cuts to vital funding sources like the National Endowment for the Arts and the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) have exacerbated this crisis, leading to program closures and job losses.
Every dollar lost in the arts impacts not just cultural employment but also adjacent sectors such as hospitality, education, and media.
The Workforce Development Agenda for New York presents a policy path forward: integrate the arts into educational frameworks, economic mobility initiatives, and sector strategies.
This includes recognizing teaching artists as vital members of the youth workforce ecosystem, creating SYEP positions within the arts tied to credentialing, and incorporating cultural organizations in digital equity and infrastructure planning.
It’s time for policy to align with the arts’ existing contributions to workforce development.
Libraries: Public Access Points to Economic Opportunity
Public libraries serve as some of the most accessible and trusted workforce entry points in New York City.
Offering free internet, resume assistance, digital skills training, and job-search tools without eligibility requirements or stigma, libraries open doors to the labor market that many New Yorkers would otherwise find closed.
Nonetheless, libraries are often mischaracterized as cultural luxuries, leading to budget cuts that have resulted in reduced hours, delayed maintenance, and staff shortages despite an increasing demand for their workforce services.
Cuts to federal funding from IMLS threaten to discontinue vital programs that assist adult literacy, job training, and digital equity—services that directly advance the city’s economic development objectives.
As navigators in a fragmented workforce system, libraries help residents access services spanning across various agencies, nonprofits, and programs.
The Workforce Development Agenda recommends expanding decentralized Economic Mobility Hubs, a role that libraries are already adept at fulfilling.
However, without proper recognition in funding strategies or workforce plans, their positive impact remains limited.
Acknowledging libraries as essential workforce infrastructure could catalyze significant new outcomes.
With minimal investment, libraries could become integral to data systems tracking credentialing, job placements, and wage growth.
They can also serve as supportive environments for underrepresented adult job seekers, offering services tailored to communities filled with trust and understanding.
Reimagining SYEP as a Career Pathway
Every year, the Summer Youth Employment Program (SYEP) allocates over $240 million to serve more than 90,000 young people, making it the largest publicly funded youth employment initiative in the country.
While SYEP enjoys political backing and widespread popularity, demonstrating immediate benefits—such as an increase in summer employment for participants—it ultimately falls short in ensuring lasting impacts.
A 2022 U.S. Department of Labor study indicated that youth chosen through SYEP’s lottery earned three times more than their peers during the program and were 54 percentage points more likely to secure employment that summer.
However, the benefits dissipate by the five and nine-year marks, pointing to systemic issues within the program’s structure.
Currently designed as a summer-only initiative, SYEP lacks ongoing support, credentialing, and connections to long-term employment, hindering sustainable workforce engagement.
This approach contradicts the city’s familiar objectives of fostering pathways to high-quality jobs.
The Workforce Development Agenda advocates for a restructured SYEP, proposing a shift to a year-round career pathway model that includes mentorship, upskilling, and transitions tied to education and employment opportunities.
It should align with other youth initiatives and prioritize tracking long-term outcomes such as wage growth, retention, and promotional advancement, rather than merely participation numbers.
In a city where a significant number of young adults remain underemployed or disconnected, a workforce strategy that concludes in August is simply inadequate.
Summer jobs should be seen as entry points rather than endpoints in career development.
A Unified Vision for Economic Mobility
At their core, the arts, libraries, and SYEP share unique positions at the intersection of community, equity, and workforce access.
Each of these systems targets demographics that traditional systems frequently overlook, fostering real-world skills that are applicable across multiple industries.
Yet, current policies and funding mechanisms underutilize their potential.
To achieve a more coordinated, data-driven, and equity-focused workforce system, it is essential to reframe the arts as a legitimate industry, libraries as critical infrastructure, and SYEP as a structured career pipeline.
These three pillars are foundational to a modern workforce strategy, and New York City already boasts the talent, tools, and networks required for change.
What remains is the necessary political will and policy framework to integrate these vital components.
image source from：citylimits
