New York, NY –
Layoffs may make the headlines but the city wants you to know that some businesses are actually thriving, due to the NYC Business Solutions Training Program. the program has retrained more than 1900 workers in the last year alone in order to make small businesses more competitive.
REPORTER: Roy Rucci is the co-owner of Rucci Oil, an 80 year old business on Staten Island that turned to the program last year, as it planned to let go of workers.
RUCCI: Without the program, we were looking to downsize our company. We were going to have to, come this spring and summer, do several layoffs to our employees. Now with the city's assistance we're able to expand our company and continue to grow.
REPORTER: Rucci Oil paid for about one-third of the re-training, with the city footing the remaining 22 thousand dollars. Mayor Bloomberg, who was also at the announcement, said the program has helped the city diversify beyond Wall Street.
Arun Venugopal is a reporter and the creator of Micropolis, WNYC’s multi-platform series examining race, sexuality, religion, street life and other issues that define New York City. He has been with the station since 2005, and has covered a wide range of stories, including the death of Sean Bell, the controversy over the Park 51 mosque and community center and Occupy Wall Street .
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