December 3, 2025 • 10 mins
Today on The Breakfast Club, Commissioner Louis Molina On Helping New Yorkers Find Jobs, The Evolution Of The City. Listen For More!
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
Woke Up, Wake you up, program your alarm the power
one oh five point one on iHeartRadio Morning.
Speaker 2 (00:07):
Everybody, It's DJ Envy, Jess Hilarious, Charlamagne the Guy. We
are the Breakfast Club. We got a special guest in.
Speaker 1 (00:13):
The building up.
Speaker 2 (00:14):
Indeed, we have Commissioner Lewis Molina. How are you feeling
the great?
Speaker 3 (00:17):
Always great to be here.
Speaker 2 (00:19):
Now you're you're launching a new weekly initiative to help
New Yorkers find jobs.
Speaker 3 (00:23):
Absolutely down, he's going with us, but let them break
it down. Yeah, Well, when you're in the number one
city in the in the world and you have job opportunities,
you got to come to the number one shoulder to
let people know what's going on. Right, So that's the
fact delivering for you dot n YC. And we also
have a number two on two, three, eight, six, five thousands.
So we have a number thousands of job opportunities with
(00:44):
the city. Some are entry level, some of for mid
career professionals, but we have somebody for We have a
job for anyone that wants to bring their talents to
the city and be part of helping our city evolve
and support the community.
Speaker 2 (00:56):
Now, I was going to ask that, so these are
career it's not just seasonable seasonal, so not just for
the holidays. This is somebody someone could get into and
work for a couple of years, get benefits, and take
care of their family.
Speaker 1 (01:06):
Long chatty.
Speaker 3 (01:07):
Absolutely, so some of the jobs at entry level and
to the beginning your career track to do that, for example,
like an assistant school safety agent with the NYPD or
working as a taxi limousine commission inspector. And for college graduates,
we have to hire a thousand school teachers to deal
with class size. We also are looking for school nurses.
So there's a number of jobs that are available if
(01:27):
you're just starting out in your career, for career progression,
if you're a mid career professional, we have those opportunities too.
Speaker 1 (01:33):
Can you explain while working for the government is such
a strong option right now?
Speaker 3 (01:37):
Well, so, I think as we've seen as of late,
when we look at local municipal government, they provide a
level of career stability that you may not get in
the private sector. We've wed a lot of challenges in
the City of New York over the over the last decade,
as many as you know and your listeners know, but
we haven't had a layoff, right, and I think that
that's important. At the same time, you have options you
(01:59):
can grow in are within the same city agency. So
we have thousands of city workers that start off in
the agency in twenty five thirty years later, they retire
from the same agencies. Myself, I had the honor of
working at five different city agencies, right, So you can
also port your career to other agencies while still maintaining
your city credit towards your retirement and your pension.
Speaker 2 (02:19):
How did the recent shutdown affect some of those individuals,
because that's one thing when people talk about working for
the government, that's always something that scares people.
Speaker 3 (02:26):
Yeah, so I think the recent shutdown really affected primarily
federal workers and affected the federal workforce, which is different
than working for a local government like the City of
New York. You know, we do work with our federal
partners in number of ways, particularly like grand Opportunities and
things like that. So we've had shutdowns in the past.
This was a long one, so there had some minor impact.
(02:48):
But a city like ours, we have a huge sort
of population base, and our funds are budgeted in time
for a lot of the programs we support, So from
that perspective, it had very minimal impact.
Speaker 1 (03:00):
We know a recent change in a federal education policy
makes nursing no longer classified as a professional degree. What
would you say to people who still want to, you know,
pursue being a nurse but they know it's not considered
a professional degree.
Speaker 3 (03:16):
Well, so I think what I would consider nursing in
general as an advanced vocational job, right, which also has
to have the complement of an academic Credentially, depending on
what you want to do in nursing, from being an
LPN to being a full RN, or to being someone
that manages a cohort of nurses on a medical floor.
So I think it really depends on what nuance of
(03:38):
nurse career path you're taking. But it is you know,
we're hiring school nurses now with a Department of Health
and Mental Hygiene. They're deployed throughout our public school system.
So a nurse is a critical job in the medical
field that allows doctors to do what they do and
be successful at it.
Speaker 2 (03:55):
I want to talk about some of the no degree
jobs people that don't have a college sure, what are
some of those jobs and are those careers where they
can increase to make some huge salaries.
Speaker 3 (04:06):
Absolutely, So I think one thing that's good about working
for the City of New York specifically is we invest
in a lot in our staff and we have a
number of jobs, for example, like city custodians that help
keep our buildings running from cleanliness to a lot of
other things within our building. And you don't need a
high school equivalents of diploma. And we recently launched with
the Department of Citywide Administrative Services a program called Epic
(04:27):
Education Propelling into Careers. And what we do is for
those that want to get their high school equivalency one
day a week, we in partnership with Metropolitan College of
New York, they able to not only get their high
school equivalency, but twenty nine college credits. What does that
look like from a career perspective? Once you get that,
there's opportunities for promotion that may not have been available
(04:48):
to you because of the qualifications for the promotion. But
thousands of city jobs not open up for you because
some city jobs do require a level of college credits
a high school diploma. So just because you have a
high school equivalency doesn't mean that you cannot have a
career in the City of New York, and the City
of New York is willing to invest with you so
that you can have the career that you choose, because
(05:09):
we still want people to have agency and be in
control of their own future.
Speaker 1 (05:12):
You know, a lot of these jobs they offer strong
benefits in union support. So can you explain what that
means for somebody who may be bouncing from job to
job with no stability.
Speaker 3 (05:20):
Sure. So, about eighty three percent of our jobs come
from civil service examinations and they're represented by a number
of different local unions throughout the city. So one thing
good about union being a member of a union, and
I've been a member of many of the unions where
I work for the city, is that their price allows
you to have someone that can advocate for you when
(05:41):
you might have challenges at work a set of resources.
Being a member of a union. They also help negotiate
your salary and increases in compensation with the collective Barney
agreements that the union have and York, the City of
New York has a really special place in partnership with
all of its labor unions and leaders, and it is
a way to be able to deliver to make sure
(06:01):
that individuals can live and work with dignity. So being
a member of a union job really is a big
benefit working for the City of New York.
Speaker 2 (06:10):
And what to do may of coming in January? Does
this help the efforts that you're doing, Does it hurt
the efforts or does nothing change?
Speaker 3 (06:16):
I think it helps. I think you know, the incoming
mayor has talked a lot in this campaign and to
this day about affordability and opportunity right. And the city
is very, very expensive. Part of that is increasing our
affordable housing stock within the city, but you also need
income right and job opportunity right. And there's a generation
(06:37):
of young people that want to see change in government,
and you can only do so much of that change
from the outside. So we're saying join our city workforce,
be part of the change you want to see. And
I think when he talks about class size and improving education,
us doing this recruitment drive to fill a thousand teacher jobs.
It's what's going to let people know what opportunities exist
(07:00):
if you want to be a school teacher.
Speaker 2 (07:01):
As an example, Now, what you know we talk about
school teachers in school teachers call all the time and
saying they love being school teachers, they love their job,
they love teaching, but they don't have enough money and
funding to take care of their classroom. They don't have
the supplies, they don't have the books, they don't have
that is that being changed? Is their help for that?
Speaker 3 (07:18):
Well, I'm here specifically about the jobs of teachers, right.
I would let the New York City public schools talk
about their ideas about how they help support teachers. But
I think anyway that we as a city can help
support any worker, teachers included, to be able to do
their job. Well, I think that's an important endeavor.
Speaker 1 (07:37):
What would you say to somebody who doesn't realize the
long term value of having government benefits, of government training
and just advancement opportunities.
Speaker 3 (07:46):
Yeah, I would say, give give it a chance. Right,
you know you always, as I've gotten older, can appreciate
things that then't appreciate maybe when I was twenty four
years old. But I think you should give the city
an opportunity and it chance. I think all of the
skills that you would gain working for the City of
New York, they're portable skills if you want to then
(08:06):
go into the private sector or maybe work in another
local government somewhere else. These life journey experiences are of
significant value at any age, whether you're an entry level
professional a mid career professional. We even have some seniors
that join the city's workforce because they have time on
their hands and they might want to work part time.
We are an age inclusive city, so we have opportunities
(08:28):
for everyone.
Speaker 1 (08:28):
Wow, Well, what does the application process look like?
Speaker 3 (08:31):
So a number of ways. One is we have the
Delivering for You dot NYC website where you can fill
out a form, give us information, and we'll be in
touch with you to talk about what may be a
professional interest to you. You can also call us at
two one, two three eight six five thousand. There are
two main ways of getting employment with the city. We
give examinations for about eighty three percent of our jobs.
(08:54):
Others don't require an examination, and you apply be an
application or resume and we would walk you through that process.
Speaker 2 (09:00):
Okay, once again, if you're looking for a job, if
you're looking for some work, Power one oh five to
one and the commissioner linked up and you can get
information on Power one on five point one or give
them the website.
Speaker 3 (09:09):
One more time, Delivering for You dot NYC.
Speaker 1 (09:12):
All right, and the job market is hell right now,
yes it is, so this is actually a blessing. What's
your message to anybody who wants to make a career
change but doesn't have any direction.
Speaker 3 (09:22):
So I would say go to the website delivering for
you dot NYC is important because that's a start where
somebody can reach out and engage with you, when you
can have an exploratory conversation, or you can call us
at two one, two three, eight six five thousand, where
you'll have someone, a live person will help you walk
you through what options may be available for you to
compete for, to consider for the next job opportunity you
(09:43):
might be looking for.
Speaker 2 (09:45):
Last question I noticed this, do you have to be
a citizen American citizen? Because I know there's a lot
of immigrants here that don't have their necessary citizenship. Can
they get a job?
Speaker 3 (09:54):
Is that? Yeah? So certain jobs may require you a citizenship,
But we have persons that are in a documented capacity
that work for the city, so not every city employee
has US citizenship.
Speaker 1 (10:07):
I wouldn't be showing up anywhere with our US citizenship
at a time like this.
Speaker 2 (10:10):
All right, okay, all right, well, we thank you for
joining us this morning. Commissioned to Lewis Molina.
Speaker 3 (10:15):
Thank you for joining us, Thank you for having me.
Speaker 2 (10:17):
It's the Breakfast Club. Good morning, every day, Wake up
the Breakfast Club.
Speaker 3 (10:23):
You'll finish what y'all done.
Woke Up, Wake you up, program your alarm the power
one oh five point one on iHeartRadio Morning.
Speaker 2 (00:07):
Everybody, It's DJ Envy, Jess Hilarious, Charlamagne the Guy. We
are the Breakfast Club. We got a special guest in.
Speaker 1 (00:13):
The building up.
Speaker 2 (00:14):
Indeed, we have Commissioner Lewis Molina. How are you feeling
the great?
Speaker 3 (00:17):
Always great to be here.
Speaker 2 (00:19):
Now you're you're launching a new weekly initiative to help
New Yorkers find jobs.
Speaker 3 (00:23):
Absolutely down, he's going with us, but let them break
it down. Yeah, Well, when you're in the number one
city in the in the world and you have job opportunities,
you got to come to the number one shoulder to
let people know what's going on. Right, So that's the
fact delivering for you dot n YC. And we also
have a number two on two, three, eight, six, five thousands.
So we have a number thousands of job opportunities with
(00:44):
the city. Some are entry level, some of for mid
career professionals, but we have somebody for We have a
job for anyone that wants to bring their talents to
the city and be part of helping our city evolve
and support the community.
Speaker 2 (00:56):
Now, I was going to ask that, so these are
career it's not just seasonable seasonal, so not just for
the holidays. This is somebody someone could get into and
work for a couple of years, get benefits, and take
care of their family.
Speaker 1 (01:06):
Long chatty.
Speaker 3 (01:07):
Absolutely, so some of the jobs at entry level and
to the beginning your career track to do that, for example,
like an assistant school safety agent with the NYPD or
working as a taxi limousine commission inspector. And for college graduates,
we have to hire a thousand school teachers to deal
with class size. We also are looking for school nurses.
So there's a number of jobs that are available if
(01:27):
you're just starting out in your career, for career progression,
if you're a mid career professional, we have those opportunities too.
Speaker 1 (01:33):
Can you explain while working for the government is such
a strong option right now?
Speaker 3 (01:37):
Well, so, I think as we've seen as of late,
when we look at local municipal government, they provide a
level of career stability that you may not get in
the private sector. We've wed a lot of challenges in
the City of New York over the over the last decade,
as many as you know and your listeners know, but
we haven't had a layoff, right, and I think that
that's important. At the same time, you have options you
(01:59):
can grow in are within the same city agency. So
we have thousands of city workers that start off in
the agency in twenty five thirty years later, they retire
from the same agencies. Myself, I had the honor of
working at five different city agencies, right, So you can
also port your career to other agencies while still maintaining
your city credit towards your retirement and your pension.
Speaker 2 (02:19):
How did the recent shutdown affect some of those individuals,
because that's one thing when people talk about working for
the government, that's always something that scares people.
Speaker 3 (02:26):
Yeah, so I think the recent shutdown really affected primarily
federal workers and affected the federal workforce, which is different
than working for a local government like the City of
New York. You know, we do work with our federal
partners in number of ways, particularly like grand Opportunities and
things like that. So we've had shutdowns in the past.
This was a long one, so there had some minor impact.
(02:48):
But a city like ours, we have a huge sort
of population base, and our funds are budgeted in time
for a lot of the programs we support, So from
that perspective, it had very minimal impact.
Speaker 1 (03:00):
We know a recent change in a federal education policy
makes nursing no longer classified as a professional degree. What
would you say to people who still want to, you know,
pursue being a nurse but they know it's not considered
a professional degree.
Speaker 3 (03:16):
Well, so I think what I would consider nursing in
general as an advanced vocational job, right, which also has
to have the complement of an academic Credentially, depending on
what you want to do in nursing, from being an
LPN to being a full RN, or to being someone
that manages a cohort of nurses on a medical floor.
So I think it really depends on what nuance of
(03:38):
nurse career path you're taking. But it is you know,
we're hiring school nurses now with a Department of Health
and Mental Hygiene. They're deployed throughout our public school system.
So a nurse is a critical job in the medical
field that allows doctors to do what they do and
be successful at it.
Speaker 2 (03:55):
I want to talk about some of the no degree
jobs people that don't have a college sure, what are
some of those jobs and are those careers where they
can increase to make some huge salaries.
Speaker 3 (04:06):
Absolutely, So I think one thing that's good about working
for the City of New York specifically is we invest
in a lot in our staff and we have a
number of jobs, for example, like city custodians that help
keep our buildings running from cleanliness to a lot of
other things within our building. And you don't need a
high school equivalents of diploma. And we recently launched with
the Department of Citywide Administrative Services a program called Epic
(04:27):
Education Propelling into Careers. And what we do is for
those that want to get their high school equivalency one
day a week, we in partnership with Metropolitan College of
New York, they able to not only get their high
school equivalency, but twenty nine college credits. What does that
look like from a career perspective? Once you get that,
there's opportunities for promotion that may not have been available
(04:48):
to you because of the qualifications for the promotion. But
thousands of city jobs not open up for you because
some city jobs do require a level of college credits
a high school diploma. So just because you have a
high school equivalency doesn't mean that you cannot have a
career in the City of New York, and the City
of New York is willing to invest with you so
that you can have the career that you choose, because
(05:09):
we still want people to have agency and be in
control of their own future.
Speaker 1 (05:12):
You know, a lot of these jobs they offer strong
benefits in union support. So can you explain what that
means for somebody who may be bouncing from job to
job with no stability.
Speaker 3 (05:20):
Sure. So, about eighty three percent of our jobs come
from civil service examinations and they're represented by a number
of different local unions throughout the city. So one thing
good about union being a member of a union, and
I've been a member of many of the unions where
I work for the city, is that their price allows
you to have someone that can advocate for you when
(05:41):
you might have challenges at work a set of resources.
Being a member of a union. They also help negotiate
your salary and increases in compensation with the collective Barney
agreements that the union have and York, the City of
New York has a really special place in partnership with
all of its labor unions and leaders, and it is
a way to be able to deliver to make sure
(06:01):
that individuals can live and work with dignity. So being
a member of a union job really is a big
benefit working for the City of New York.
Speaker 2 (06:10):
And what to do may of coming in January? Does
this help the efforts that you're doing, Does it hurt
the efforts or does nothing change?
Speaker 3 (06:16):
I think it helps. I think you know, the incoming
mayor has talked a lot in this campaign and to
this day about affordability and opportunity right. And the city
is very, very expensive. Part of that is increasing our
affordable housing stock within the city, but you also need
income right and job opportunity right. And there's a generation
(06:37):
of young people that want to see change in government,
and you can only do so much of that change
from the outside. So we're saying join our city workforce,
be part of the change you want to see. And
I think when he talks about class size and improving education,
us doing this recruitment drive to fill a thousand teacher jobs.
It's what's going to let people know what opportunities exist
(07:00):
if you want to be a school teacher.
Speaker 2 (07:01):
As an example, Now, what you know we talk about
school teachers in school teachers call all the time and
saying they love being school teachers, they love their job,
they love teaching, but they don't have enough money and
funding to take care of their classroom. They don't have
the supplies, they don't have the books, they don't have
that is that being changed? Is their help for that?
Speaker 3 (07:18):
Well, I'm here specifically about the jobs of teachers, right.
I would let the New York City public schools talk
about their ideas about how they help support teachers. But
I think anyway that we as a city can help
support any worker, teachers included, to be able to do
their job. Well, I think that's an important endeavor.
Speaker 1 (07:37):
What would you say to somebody who doesn't realize the
long term value of having government benefits, of government training
and just advancement opportunities.
Speaker 3 (07:46):
Yeah, I would say, give give it a chance. Right,
you know you always, as I've gotten older, can appreciate
things that then't appreciate maybe when I was twenty four
years old. But I think you should give the city
an opportunity and it chance. I think all of the
skills that you would gain working for the City of
New York, they're portable skills if you want to then
(08:06):
go into the private sector or maybe work in another
local government somewhere else. These life journey experiences are of
significant value at any age, whether you're an entry level
professional a mid career professional. We even have some seniors
that join the city's workforce because they have time on
their hands and they might want to work part time.
We are an age inclusive city, so we have opportunities
(08:28):
for everyone.
Speaker 1 (08:28):
Wow, Well, what does the application process look like?
Speaker 3 (08:31):
So a number of ways. One is we have the
Delivering for You dot NYC website where you can fill
out a form, give us information, and we'll be in
touch with you to talk about what may be a
professional interest to you. You can also call us at
two one, two three eight six five thousand. There are
two main ways of getting employment with the city. We
give examinations for about eighty three percent of our jobs.
(08:54):
Others don't require an examination, and you apply be an
application or resume and we would walk you through that process.
Speaker 2 (09:00):
Okay, once again, if you're looking for a job, if
you're looking for some work, Power one oh five to
one and the commissioner linked up and you can get
information on Power one on five point one or give
them the website.
Speaker 3 (09:09):
One more time, Delivering for You dot NYC.
Speaker 1 (09:12):
All right, and the job market is hell right now,
yes it is, so this is actually a blessing. What's
your message to anybody who wants to make a career
change but doesn't have any direction.
Speaker 3 (09:22):
So I would say go to the website delivering for
you dot NYC is important because that's a start where
somebody can reach out and engage with you, when you
can have an exploratory conversation, or you can call us
at two one, two three, eight six five thousand, where
you'll have someone, a live person will help you walk
you through what options may be available for you to
compete for, to consider for the next job opportunity you
(09:43):
might be looking for.
Speaker 2 (09:45):
Last question I noticed this, do you have to be
a citizen American citizen? Because I know there's a lot
of immigrants here that don't have their necessary citizenship. Can
they get a job?
Speaker 3 (09:54):
Is that? Yeah? So certain jobs may require you a citizenship,
But we have persons that are in a documented capacity
that work for the city, so not every city employee
has US citizenship.
Speaker 1 (10:07):
I wouldn't be showing up anywhere with our US citizenship
at a time like this.
Speaker 2 (10:10):
All right, okay, all right, well, we thank you for
joining us this morning. Commissioned to Lewis Molina.
Speaker 3 (10:15):
Thank you for joining us, Thank you for having me.
Speaker 2 (10:17):
It's the Breakfast Club. Good morning, every day, Wake up
the Breakfast Club.
Speaker 3 (10:23):
You'll finish what y'all done.
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