The Breakfast Club - INTERVIEW: Commissioner Louis Molina On Helping New Yorkers Find Jobs, The Evolution Of The City + More

Episode Date: December 3, 2025

Today on The Breakfast Club, Commissioner Louis Molina On Helping New Yorkers Find Jobs, The Evolution Of The City. Listen For More!YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@BreakfastClubPower1051FMSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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We are the Breakfast Club. We got a special guest in the building. Yes, indeed. We have Commissioner Louis Molina. How are you feeling, man? Great. Always great to be here. Now, you're launching a new weekly initiative

to help New Yorkers find jobs. Absolutely. Let's break that down. He's doing it with us, Power 105.1. Of course, yeah, but let them break it down. Yeah, well, when you're in the number one city in the world and you have job opportunities, you've got to come to the number one show

to let people know what's going on, right? So that's a fact. Deliveringfor you.n.YC, and we also have a number, 212,000, 3,86, 5,000. So we have a number, thousands of job opportunities with the city, some are entry level, some are for mid-career professionals,

but we have somebody for, we have a job for anyone that wants to bring their time, to the city and be part of helping our city evolve and support the community. I was just going to ask that. So these are careers, not just seasonal jobs, right? 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 long time.

Absolutely. So some of the jobs are entry level and to the begin 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 you're just starting out in your career for a career progression. If you're a mid-career professional, we have those opportunities too. Can you explain while

working for the government is such a strong option right now? 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 weathered a lot of challenges in the city of New York 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 can grow in a career within the same city agency. So we have thousands of city workers that start off in an agency, and 25, 30 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. 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. 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 a 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. 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 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 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 academic credentialing, 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 nurse career path you're taking.

But it is, you know, we're hiring school nurses now with the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene. 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. I want to talk about some of the no-degree jobs, people that don't have a college education. Sure. What are some of those jobs and are those careers where they can increase to make some huge salaries? Yeah, 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 have help keep our buildings running, from cleanliness to a lot of other things within our building,

and you don't need a high school equivalence of diploma. And we recently launched with the Department of Citywide Administrative Services, a program called Epic, 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're able to not only get their high school equivalency, but 29 college credits. What does that look like from a career perspective. Once, once you get that, there's opportunities for promotion that may not have been available to you because of the qualifications for the promotion. But thousands of city jobs now open up for you because some city jobs do require a level of college credits, a high school

diploma. So just because you don't 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 we still want people to have agency and be in control of their own future. You know, a lot of these jobs, they offer strong benefits and union support. So can you explain what that means for somebody who may be bouncing from job to job with no stability? Sure. So about 83% 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 worked for the city, is that their prize

allows you to have someone that can advocate for you when 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 bargaining agreements that the union have. And 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 that individuals can live and work with dignity. So being a member of a union job, is a big benefit working for the city of New York. Now, with the new mayor coming in January,

does this help the efforts that you're doing? Does it hurt the efforts or does nothing change? I think it helps. I think, you know, the incoming mayor has talked a lot in his 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 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 opportunity to exist if you want to be a school teacher as an example. Now what, you know, we talk about school teachers and 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 there help for that?

Well, I'm here specifically about the jobs of teachers, right? I will let the New York City public schools talk about their ideas about how they help support teachers. But I think any way that we as a city can help support any workers. teachers included to be able to do their job well, I think that's an important endeavor. What would you say to somebody who doesn't realize the long-term value of having government benefits or government training and just advancement opportunity? Yeah, I would say give it a chance, right? You know, you always, as I've gotten older, can appreciate things that it didn't appreciate maybe when I was 24 years old. But I think you should give the city an opportunity and a 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 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 for everyone. What does the application process look like? So a number of ways. One is we have the Delivering for You.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 212, 386, 5,000. There are two main ways of getting employment with the city. We give examinations for about 83% of our jobs. Others don't require an examination, and you apply it via application or resume, and we would walk you through that process. Okay, once again, if you're looking for a job, if you're looking for some work, Power 1051, and the commissioner linked up, and you could get information on Power 105.1 or give them the website one more time.

Deliveringfor-you.noyc. All right. And the job market is hell right now. Yes, it is. So this is actually a blessing. Oh, it is. What's your message to anybody who wants to make a career change but doesn't have any direction? So I would say go to the website.

Deliveringfor-you.com. 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 212-386-5,000 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 might be looking for. Last question. I notice 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? Is that? Yeah, so certain jobs may require U.S. citizenship, but we have persons that are in a documented capacity

that work for the city. So not every city employee has U.S. citizenship. I wouldn't be showing up anywhere without U.S. citizenship at a time like this. All right. Okay. All right. Well, we thank you for joining us this morning. Commissioner Lewis Molina.

Thank you for joining us. Thank you for having me. It's the Breakfast Club. Good morning. Every day I wake up. Wake your ass up. The Breakfast Club. Do you all finished or y'all done?

The show was ahead of its time. in a black family in ways the television hadn't shown before. Exactly. It's Telma Hopkins, also known as Aunt Rachel. And I'm Kelly Williams or Laura Winslow. On our podcast, Welcome to the Family with Telma and Kelly. We're re-watching every episode of Family Matters. We'll share behind-the-scenes stories about making the show.

Yeah, we'll even bring in some special guests to spill some tea. Listen to Welcome to the Family with Telma and Kelly on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcasts. If one of us wins, we all win. I'm Ashley Rayfeld, the host of the podcast. Good luck with that. Good luck with that is a skateboarding podcast about the past, present, and future of women and gender expansive skateboarding.

In our show, we'll talk with skaters like Bobby Delphino on pushing style, culture, and the conversation forward. You break down the door, sick now like hold the door for everyone. I believe in that solely. So listen to good luck with that on iHeart radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. a man with Down syndrome tries the impossible the grand slam in turkey hunting for 53 hits we're legal shooting light and he gives us this one last gesture and he pitches off and when

he pitches off he flies right into the gun barrel i said to the cameraman do you have him he said shoot he said shoot you can download this episode and others from lines and times with spencer graves on the iHeart radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. What are the cycles fathers pass down that sons are left to heal? What if being a man wasn't about holding it all together, but learning how to let go? This is a space where men speak truth and find the power to heal and transform. I'm Mike Dela Rocha. Welcome to Sacred Lessons. Listen to Sacred Lessons on the IHart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or

wherever you get your podcast. In sitcoms, when someone has a problem, they just blurt it out and move on. Well, I lost my job and my parakeet is missing. How is your day? But the real world is different. Managing life's challenges can be overwhelming. So, what do we do?

We get support. The Huntsman Mental Health Institute and the Ad Council have mental health resources available for you at loveyourmindtay.org. That's Love Your Mind Today.org. That's loveyourmindtay.org. See how much further you can go when you take care of your mental health.

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