Creating Secure Jobs with Reliable Benefits
Warren Whitlock, director of Construction Coordination at Columbia, talks with local business owners at a reception for minority-, women- and locally owned businesses hosted by Columbia University Facilities Management.
Today, nearly one-third of Columbia's staff and administrators live in northern Manhattan—and the University's academic expansion would, when completed, create an estimated 6,000 new jobs in Manhattanville. These opportunities aren't just for professors and researchers with advanced degrees. Nearly 3,300 of these jobs would include, for example, administrative assistants, aides, groundskeepers, mechanics, lab technicians, library assistants, cooks, and cashiers, providing a mix of jobs for people who are just starting out in the workforce and for those with several years of work experience.These jobs of the future would provide dependable health, educational, and retirement benefits.
Jobs and Opportunities
Current job openings with the Manhattanville planned expansion
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Columbia Employment at a Glance
- Columbia University is the seventh largest private employer in the City of New York.
- Nearly 30% of Columbia's 8,600 administrative and support employees live in Upper Manhattan.
- From 2002 to 2005, more than $112 million—about 36 percent—of Columbia's major construction contracts went to minority-, women-, or locally owned (MWL) firms.
- During fiscal year 2006, Columbia contracted for more than $65 million in construction and repair and maintenance services with MWL firms, representing more than one-third of its construction and repair and maintenance spending.
- Expansion in Manhattanville would create 6,000 new University jobs for a diverse mix of educational, experience, and skill levels.
- Columbia jobs provide stable local employment that includes reliable health and retirement benefits.
In addition, new local businesses in University buildings would create retail and restaurant jobs, and the resulting increase in economic activity at Columbia would indirectly generate thousands of additional jobs city-wide.
Engine of Urban Economic Growth
Full construction of the revitalization plan would generate an average of 1,200 construction-related jobs in New York each year for nearly a quarter century and inject billions of dollars into the local economy. Over the past four fiscal years, Columbia has spent more than $112 million in hiring minority-, women-, and locally owned contractors in northern Manhattan and the South Bronx—more than one-third of the total of $311 million spent on major construction projects. The University plans to continue this strong record of seeking construction firms based in New York City, with a significant percentage of minority-, women-, and locally owned firms in Upper Manhattan.
In constructing these new academic and community facilities, Columbia would generate an estimated $5 billion in compensation for workers in New York and create approximately $11 billion in local economic activity. Over the next quarter century, it would also generate nearly $430 million in tax revenues for New York City and the state.