Bruce Alexander, vice president for the Office of New Haven and State Affairs, announced in a letter on Tuesday addressed to New Haven city officials that Yale plans to hire 500 New Haven residents within the next two years.

Alexander wrote to Mayor Toni Harp and president of the Board of Alders Tyiesha Walker that the University has made a commitment to hire at least 100 New Haven residents to work for its contractors on construction projects and 400 to work regular University jobs.

“We realize how important high quality jobs are to this process, not only in improving the economic vitality of the city, but also and especially to support the well-being of New Haven residents and their families,” Alexander said in the letter.

Alexander qualified that Yale’s ability to meet its goal of hiring 100 construction workers would depend on the number of available New Haven residents in the skilled trades unions. He also wrote that he hoped Yale’s new commitment to employing city residents would motivate external employers to hire within New Haven.

In a public statement, Harp praised the University.

“Yale’s pledge to hire 500 more New Haven residents over the next two years is a most welcome commitment from what is already the city’s largest employer to continue collaborating with the city to create local jobs for local workers,” the statement read. “New Haven will thrive and continue making public safety advances to the extent its employable residents can work and earn a living wage.”

Approximately 4,000 of Yale’s 13,000 employees are New Haven residents.