San Francisco

San Francisco Mayor Encourages Laid Off Workers Apply for City Jobs

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It seems like nearly every day, another local tech company announces major layoffs, and many believe Twitter may be added to that list Friday.

But the city of San Francisco said it may have a place for thousands of those newly-unemployed tech-types.

“We know a number of other tech companies have laid people off,” said Mayor London Breed who said they’ve unfortunately seen mass layoffs in the tech industry before. 

Breed said that this time, she's got a solid suggestion: go work for the city.

“There are opportunities to work in human resources and there are technology jobs, great benefits, great retirement packages you get to work and hopefully live right in the city that you love,” Breed said.

San Francisco has close to 5,000 open positions and while she admits the city may not have all the perks, like Zen rooms or coffee bars, they offer something many tech companies don’t and that's stability.

“And retire from the with a decent retirement and health care so I think that even though it may not be on the same level it is probably a lot more reliable in terms of working for the city because there’s are positions that are oftentimes not needed and usually you don’t see significant cuts with city employment,” said Breed.

There’s also an updated and more user friendly system for applying that will allow people to apply to multiple jobs at once and even tie it to their LinkedIn profile.  

And the city says it's not just for tech workers.

“It all depends on what workers want,” said Nolan Higdon.

He is a professor of history and communication at Cal State East Bay and said it’s difficult to say what workers might choose, but it's nice to know they have options.  

“Traditionally workers don’t like to change industries and the older you get the less likely you are to make a change so if you spend your life dedicated to tech and a job in San Francisco is the only well paying opportunity you have I would imagine people would choose it,” said Higdon.

The mayor sees it this way.

“San Francisco it’s a great place to work and give back to the city. My hope is that this is not a tough transition for the employees who unfortunately are about to lose their jobs,” she said.

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