Tech:NYC Digest: June 15

Tech:NYC Digest: June 15

June 15, 2021 • Estimated Reading Time: 9 minutes

Tuesday, June 15, 2021In today’s digest, NYC officially celebrates a full reopening, how to make tech’s pandemic hiring frenzy available to all, and a new initiative to reopen NYC’s hardest-hit neighborhoods with food.

  • Tomorrow at noon ET, join us for a discussion on how algorithms and emerging technologies should be used by government to deliver city services, with NYC Algorithms Management and Policy Officer Alex Foard and UrbanLogiq CEO Mark Masongsong. Register here.

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It’s official: New York has reached a statewide average 70 percent vaccination rate among adult New Yorkers, marking an end to the commercial and social restrictions put in place 15 months ago.

  • Long Island is leading among the state’s ten regions, with a 75 percent vaccination rate, and NYC is slightly under the mark, at 68.4 percent. The statewide positivity rate came in today at 0.40 percent, the lowest in the country. (NYS)

After 472 days, the milestone wipes away virtually all state-mandated restrictions: offices, restaurants, gyms, salons, movie theaters, sports venues, and more can now lift their capacity limits and safety protocols. But, while state mandates are gone:

  • Restrictions mandated at the federal level by the CDC will remain — mask requirements are in effect for pre-K-12 schools, public transit, and healthcare settings, for example.

  • Individual establishments, like restaurants, retail shops, and salons and barbers may choose to keep their own mask and social distancing rules for a while longer.

We’re not out of the woods yet: It’s important to remember that, even in a single region, notable disparities in vaccination coverage remain a challenge, and a more localized reemergence of new cases could be seen in vulnerable neighborhoods this summer and fall.

  • Of New York’s 1,755 zip codes, ten percent have vaccination rates at 38 percent or lower. (New York Post)

  • Dr. Celine Gounder, an NYU physician who served on Pres. Biden’s COVID-19 Advisory Board, said: “Within New York City, for example, we know that the proportion of adults fully vaccinated ranges from 32% of Black adults to 71% of Asian/Native Hawaiian/other Pacific Islander adults—from 37% in Far Rockaway to 100% in the Financial District.” (Gothamist)

It’s still a bit early to have a real sense on if today’s announcement marks a major shift in New Yorkers’ behavior moving forward, but it’s a moment worth celebrating nonetheless.

And New York intends to: To mark the milestone, major New York landmarks will be lit up in blue and gold, and fireworks will light the skies across the state. Be sure to look out your windows towards New York Harbor at 9:15pm tonight. (CBS New York)

  • And mark your calendars for July 7, the date Mayor de Blasio said NYC will hold its first ticker tape parade since the pandemic began along the legendary Canyon of Heroes to honor frontline healthcare and essential workers. (NBC New York)

Happy Reopening, NYC!

Hiring in New York’s tech sector has outpaced that of all other sectors during the COVID-19 pandemic, according to the latest report from the Center for an Urban Future (CUF). And job openings were driven not just by the city’s largest tech employers, but also from homegrown startups, which in the last year have raised a combined $16 billion in venture funding to turbocharge that growth.

But the smallest share of those opportunities have been for entry-level jobs in the sector. (Crain’s New York)

  • Jovena Natal, founder of Clutch Talent, a recruitment firm in the Flatiron District specializing in the tech sector, said: “A company needs people on the team who can mentor you as a junior engineer. It takes more resources to bring a new engineer up to speed.”

Tech companies have increasingly shifted away from requiring job candidates to have a four-year undergraduate degree in computer science or a related field. Comparably, a job marketing monitoring site, released its annual list of the highest-paying entry-level jobs in tech, and they span from product manager, to mobile developer, to community manager. (Thrillist)

  • But, according to the CUF report's findings, we can be doing more to make sure New Yorkers — of all levels of industry experience, including none at all — are better prepared to fill those roles. (Gotham Gazette) “A deep and diverse talent pool will help ensure that tech-powered industries can stay here and grow, while producing good jobs for New Yorkers.”

In related reading:

  • Facebook’s head of recruiting on what COVID changed about hiring (Fast Company)

  • Meet Humu, the company trying to nudge us to be better remote workers (Axios)

  • To Fill Millions of Open Jobs, Many Workers Need More Than Skills (New York Times)

Last week, daily subway ridership averaged about 2.4 million. Weekday ridership has been consistently over two million for a while, but last week’s average is still almost 60 percent lower than the same time last year. With only 12 percent of Manhattan office employees back to in-person work, according to a recent survey, that’s not all too surprising. How often are you now taking the subway? (This is a recurring question, responses help Tech:NYC track trends over time.)

  • Clair, a New York-based rapid pay platform for hourly and gig economy workers, has raised $15 million in a Series A funding. Thrive Capital led the round. (TechCrunch)

  • June 16: Virtual: Functions.NYC: Algorithms and Government Decision-Making, with NYC Algorithms Management and Policy Officer Alex Foard and UrbanLogiq CEO Mark Masongsong. Hosted by Tech:NYC. Register here.

  • June 21 – 25: Virtual: Mobilize Women Week 2021, with Spotify Global Head of Equity and Impact Elizabeth Nieto, Microsoft Chief Accessibility Officer Jenny Lay-Flurrie, BetterUp Chief Product Officer Gabriella Rosen Kellerman, and others. Hosted by Ellevate Network. Register here.

  • June 22: How Salesforce Is Thinking About Real Estate and The Future of Work, with SVP of Global Workplace Services Michele Schneider. Hosted by Savills. Register here.

  • June 22: Virtual: The Future of the Office with New York tech HR leaders, including Vivvi Head of People Lauren Gill, CommonBond VP of People Keryn Koch, and Suzy Chief People Officer Anthony Onesto. Hosted by Tribeca Venture Partners. Register here.

While some NYC residents fled the city at the peak of the pandemic, Bryan Lozano (a Tech:NYC alum!) did the opposite, moving back to his native Elmhurst, Queens, one of the most diverse and restaurant-worker heavy neighborhoods in the city that also became the epicenter of the COVID-19 pandemic.Enter Homecoming, a new food crawl, co-founded by Bryan, designed to lift up immigrant-founded restaurants, support the neighborhoods where they set up shop, and raise funds for food insecure New Yorkers all at the same time. New York Magazine tagged along for Homecoming’s first crawl in — you guessed it — Elmhurst. It’s a delicious read to satiate you until we can pass along updates for how you can join the next crawl!

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