Bloomberg yesterday announced the creation of "Spider-Man, You're Hired," a new comic book describing city resources available to New Yorkers who are looking for work.
The city's unemployment rate for October was 9.2%, compared to 8.3% for New York State, according to figures released today by the NY department of labor.
Extended unemployment benefits are set to expire in less than two weeks if Congress does not act to renew them before then. Without further extensions, 95,000 city residents will have their benefits cut off by the end of 2010 and 190,000 by May, 2011, the labor department estimates.
"New York City provides free, first-rate job training and placement assistance, and we want every New Yorker that needs help to know about it, so we asked Spider-Man to help us spread the word," the mayor said.
The city is collaborating with Marvel Comics on the project. "Marvel's proud to team-up with the City of New York to help inform all New Yorkers about the free services designed to assist them in finding employment. We couldn't ask for two better leading men than Spider-Man and Mayor Bloomberg," said Marvel Entertainment Editor-in-Chief Joe Quesada.
The comic features an unemployed character named Peter Parker who is starting his job search.
The New York Daily News is also participating in the enterprise. "As New York's Hometown Newspaper, the Daily News is proud to use our printed pages and the power of NYDailyNews.com to help New Yorkers, like unemployed Spider-Man alter-ego Peter Parker, find work," said New York Daily News CEO Bill Holiber.
The full-color, eight-page comic features an out-of-work Peter Parker, frustrated and at a loss about how to find a new job. A serendipitous meeting with the mayor helps to put him on the right track. The comic is available for free download online via iTunes through the Marvel Comics app.
The Daily News is also printing a special edition of "Spider-Man: You're Hired," appearing in over 600,000 papers with a list of all the centers in the city where the comic will be available.
The mayor's office said that the one-sheet comics are available for download on NYC.gov and can also be seen on phone kiosks and other signage throughout the city. A public service announcement featuring the comics can also be seen in city taxi cabs and on NYC life (channel 25) and NYC gov (channel 74), the city's government station. The public service announcement, which debuted on Wednesday, explains the project and encourages people to download the comic.
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