Applications to all four of the city’s uniformed agencies are down sharply, indicating it’s not just Police Department recruitment that’s been hurt by the booming economy.
City officials say only 4,300 people have filed for the correction officer exam, with the deadline just 13 days away.
Three years earlier, the same test drew 6,214 applicants – and that was a steep drop from the 19,566 who wanted to get into the jail system in 1996.
The last Fire Department exam in 1998 attracted 23,163 would-be smoke-eaters, more than enough to fill the anticipated openings. But the previous test in 1991-92 had 40,238 clamoring to get in.
The story was the same at the Sanitation Department, which was overwhelmed by 101,209 applicants in 1990.
By 1998, when the next exam was offered, 56,000 people showed up. That was still far more than the city needed.
“It’s way beyond police,” said Mitchell Moss, director of NYU’s Taub Urban Research Center.
“There were always three things you got with a city job: security, a good pension and a modest salary,” he added.
“Those values only work when there’s an economic weakness. New York’s economy is so strong, it’s hard to enter a career with a limited salary when there are so many opportunities elsewhere.”
Top base salary after five years in the NYPD, which is experiencing the worst recruit shortage in its recent history, is $49,023.
One city official said pay alone doesn’t explain the Police Department’s problem.
“It can’t be the salary – it’s the same for everyone [in the uniformed agencies],” he said.
But there are distinctions.
Many firefighters have shifts that allow them to hold down second jobs. In fact, numerous cops – including the son of Fire Commissioner Tom Von Essen – have traded in their blue uniforms for firefighter suits.
Applicants for sanitation worker need only high school degrees, not the college credits mandated for the other uniformed agencies.
“It’s going to get worse,” predicted Norman Seabrook, president of the Correction Officers Benevolent Association. “It’s just not fashionable to work for the city any more.”