Although the University fell short of its goal to hire at least 25 percent New Haven residents to work on the construction of the new colleges, Yale’s New Haven Hiring Summary for the last two years shows that the University has employed nearly 700 New Haven residents since July 2015.
From July 2015 to September 2017, Yale hired 2,375 external candidates, according to the hiring summary, which the University provided to the News. Of these hires, 671 were New Haven residents, or 28 percent. While hiring decisions are based on job performance rather than geographical location, 34 percent of New Haven residents hired came from high-unemployment areas such as Dixwell, Dwight and Newhallville, according to New Haven Community Hiring Initiative director Chris Brown. Still, the highest percentage of hires — 15.1 percent and 13.6 percent — came from the East Rock and downtown New Haven neighborhoods, respectively.
Yale partners with New Haven Works, a job outreach program, and other non-profit organizations to provide city residents jobs at the University. The University has recently begun to partner with New Haven Promise, a foundation that grants full-tuition scholarships to Connecticut residents who plan to attend an in-state public college or university. Over the last two years, 72 New Haven Promise interns have started work across 25 different Yale departments, according to the New Haven Hiring Summary.
“The idea [in partnering with New Haven Promise] is that we can lift all of New Haven by lifting the education level and encouraging secondary education for those who might not otherwise afford it,” Vice President of Communications Eileen O’Connor said.
Alejandra Angulo, a New Haven Promise scholar who has worked as a student tech consultant for Yale ITS, said the Promise’s partnership with Yale allowed her a range of opportunities for professional growth, such as “resume workshops, employment, hiring initiatives, workshops with Yale hiring managers, internships at Yale and networking events.”
For major construction jobs at Yale, the University aims to hire 20 percent of its workers from New Haven and to make the workforce 25 percent minority, according to Vice President and Director New Haven & State Affairs Bruce Alexander. But only 12 percent of the workers hired to build the new colleges were New Haven residents.
“We put these targets in place and have regular meetings with the subcontractors to work to diversify the workforce in well-paying trades such as carpentry, electrical and plumbing,” Alexander said. “The constraint here is membership in the union. In the Building Trades Union, in order to work at a licensed trade on union jobs, one needs to have a union card. For that reason we also set goals for apprentices on those building projects to help get New Haven residents into the trade unions.
According to the New Haven Hiring Summary, 44 percent of total New Haven Works hires are casual or temporary employees rather than full-time workers. Brown said the disparity could be explained by either the fact that some people do not have enough experience to obtain a full-time job, or that people cannot have a full-time job in the University service and maintenance union, Local 35, if they have not worked a certain number of hours.
“Once you work a certain number of hours, you are eligible to go through the bidding process,” Brown said. “It’s seniority based so someone who has had their bidding rights for longer is more likely to get a full time worker designation.”
The construction of the new colleges began in 2015.
Kiddest Sinke | kiddest.sinke@yale.edu