It’s furlough time for city employees

Staggered furloughs are expected to start for city workers — including Mayor de Blasio — over a period of months starting Thursday.

It’s a symbolic effort to save the city almost $22 million as it grapples with a fiscal crisis the likes of which haven’t been seen since the 1970s. A total of 450 City Hall staffers, including Hizzoner, will go on furlough for five total days. They won’t be furloughed all at once, and the days off will be spread out to reduce the impact on workflow, according to de Blasio spokesman Bill Neidhardt.

Neidhardt couldn’t say Wednesday when the mayor will go on furlough, though he added that de Blasio will work on a “volunteer” basis on days he doesn’t get paid. No City Hall staffers were expected to be on furlough Thursday, he said.

More than 9,000 managerial and nonunion municipal workers are also getting furloughed, for five days spread out over the next five months.

Neidhardt couldn’t say which city workers, if any, were being furloughed Thursday. The city is facing an estimated $10 billion tax revenue shortfall through 2021.

De Blasio has pleaded for a bailout from Washington and the authority from Albany to borrow funds to cover operating costs. So far, both President Trump and Gov. Cuomo have balked.

Hizzoner previously said in the absence of aid he’d have to fire up to 22,000 workers by Thursday. But he tapped the brakes on the plan in August, saying it would be reevaluated on a day-today basis as city talks with unions continue.

Asked about the matter Wednesday, de Blasio didn’t have any updates.

“I’m not going to speak about breakthroughs until they break through,” he said.