The MTA’s capital program for maintaining and upgrading the regional transit system faces significant delays due to potential funding shortfalls caused by the late implementation of congestion pricing. The MTA should explain how it intends to prioritize its needs so that its choices do not result in disinvestment in the system, noting that bringing riders back would be one of the most direct routes for the MTA to reduce its debt burden over the long term.

New York City’s full-time government workforce is expected to increase for the first-time year-over-year since the COVID-19 pandemic. However, high turnover and vacancy rates exist at several City agencies. The City should continue efforts to increase and expedite hiring where needed to ensure critical agencies and departments can meet demands and provide quality services to residents.

The majority of New York City’s capital projects are over their initial budgets and behind schedule, suggesting better monitoring and reporting could lead to adjustments to improve capital project delivery. Recent reforms to the City’s capital planning process have focused on improving the delivery of projects, but little detail is available in public documentation about what is fueling these cost and schedule overruns. With closer, more uniform monitoring of capital projects, the City can better identify where additional improvement is needed.

The size of New York City’s immigrant workforce was flat over nearly a decade. Through 2023, the foreign-born labor market grew 18.5% since 2015 nationally, while New York City’s declined 0.6%, according to data analyzed from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Still, in 2023, New York City’s 1.8 million foreign-born workers made up 44.3% of its total labor force, more than double the national share of 18.6%.

One Page Summary: Foreign-Born in the Workforce in NYC

The average annual Wall Street bonus dipped to $176,500 last year, a 2% decline from the previous year’s average of $180,000. Wall Street’s profits were up 1.8% in 2023, but firms have taken a more cautious approach to compensation and more employees have joined the securities industry, which accounts for the slight decline in the average bonus.