#De Blasio could lay off 22,000 city employees in wake of coronavirus fallout

More than 20,000 municipal employees across all city agencies could lose their jobs to create $1 billion in cuts needed to balance the budget with the Big Apple’s coronavirus-starved coffers, Mayor Bill de Blasio announced Wednesday.

“Closing the $1 billion gap would mean laying off 22,000 city employees, which is a staggering number,” de Blasio said during his daily press briefing.

The mayor’s been in conversations with municipal labor unions to try to find other cuts that wouldn’t reduce the city’s 300,000-person workforce by 7 percent, but time is running out. By law, the city is required to have a balanced budget for the next fiscal year by June 30.

“We are prepared if we have to to initiate this type of plan with time given hopefully to find alternatives from Washington or Albany,” de Blasio.

If a bailout doesn’t happen, layoffs would take effect in the fall.

Hizzoner described the potential workforce cuts as “the only way” to close the budget gap.

“It would literally be every single agency and the mayor’s office,” he said.

The Post exclusively reported last month that de Blasio had spent $2 million on hirings and promotions primarily at City Hall during a supposed hiring freeze during the pandemic.

The city’s ever-shrinking coffers started at $95.3 billion this winter before lost revenue from the COVID-19 lockdown decimated the treasury. It now stands at $87 billion and more reductions are likely.

“That number may have to go down again in the course of the fiscal year as revenue gets even worse as we expect,” de Blasio said Wednesday.

The mayor has promised to cut funding from the NYPD’s $6 billion budget, but will transfer an unspecified amount to youth services so the slash won’t reduce overall spending.

De Blasio has resisted calls by City Council leaders and advocates to cut $1 billion from the NYPD’s budget, repeating Wednesday that he must balance any reforms with safety concerns given the “really troubling” surge in shootings this month.