Reminiscent of Obama’s trillion dollar stimulus for “shovel-ready” jobs that really weren’t so shovel-ready.
Via Daily Mail:
A New York City jobs program launched by mayor Bill de Blasio has cost $300million and put 3,000 people in employment, it has been revealed. De Blasio pledged to create 100,000 jobs paying at least $50,000 through his $1.35bn ‘New York Works’ scheme when it launched in June 2017. The program promised to meet the 100,000 target by 2027, meaning around 10,000 jobs would be generated each year.
But the scheme is falling well short of initial predictions, with just 3,000 positions filled in nearly two years. James Patchett, president of the city’s Economic Development Corporation, admitted the slow progress at a contentious City Council hearing on the program. Patchett said the $300m has ‘laid the groundwork’ to create future job opportunities. He claimed the money had been spent on training and infrastructure for companies to expand or move to the city.
When Councilman Ritchie Torres asked how many jobs had been created so far, Patchett said 19,000 were projected. But when Torres pressed, Patchett admitted that only 3,000 were producing paychecks. ‘I would say of the 19,000, we believe we’re at, we’re at about 3,000 of those actual jobs, people working today,’ Patchett said.
He then added defensively: ‘But I want to be clear: We’re doing annual updates . . . We did our best to prepare for this hearing because we were holding it today.’