HOBOKEN — Nearly 80 City Hall employees received notice of potential layoffs Friday, hurting morale as Hoboken scrambles to patch an estimated budget deficit of at least $7 million, officials said.

But city spokesman Vijay Chaudhuri said the 79 notices are a necessary precaution as the city prepares to introduce the new budget later this month.

“Layoffs are a worst case scenario, and Mayor [Ravi] Bhalla and his administration continue to work around the clock to produce a budget with the City Council that reduces costs and keeps Hoboken fiscally sound for the long-term,” he said.

Councilman Michael Russo said City Hall would be “absolutely decimated” if there were to be mass layoffs.

“Morale is horrible,” he said. “Everyone is scared about what the outcomes may be here. It’s a scary thing to know you have a job and then all of a sudden you’re potentially not going to have that job. How do you feed your family? How do you pay your rent? How do you pay your mortgage?”

The employees who received notices, all of whom are paid hourly, are the first ones people talk to when they call City Hall, said Anthony Ricciardi, president of the Hoboken Municipal Supervisors Association. Many have worked for the city for decades, he said.

“We’re the front line,” Ricciardi said. “When people call City Hall to get something — garbage removed, parking, whatever it is — we’re the first ones that they call. We’re the ones that go out and get the job done.”

Any layoffs will be effective after May 7, according to the notice.

In January, former Hoboken Business Administrator Stephen Marks said the estimated $7 million deficit would equate to about 80 layoffs. The city employs about 560 people in total.

Marks, who has since taken a job in Kearny, said the deficit is largely a result of unpreventable cost increases in services such as health care and pensions.

There is currently a hiring freeze for certain departments, Russo said, and he also wants to pursue a spending freeze.

Ricciardi said city employees have been self-insured since 2016, which at the time was in an effort to save Hoboken University Hospital, Ricciardi said. Two years ago, his union requested that the city get a quote for the state health benefits program, and it was significantly lower than what it was paying under its current plan, he said.

“We’ve been urging them to get out of the plan for the last two years,” he said.

Russo said the City Council does not have complete insight into what the new budget is shaping up to look like. He suggested that it include direct cuts to services, not just employees.

“If there are [hypothetically] 10 people in recreation that are going to be laid off, well why don’t you just reduce recreation across the city?” he said.

Councilman Mike DeFusco similarly suggested that the city look to alternative cuts.

“Instead of looking to cut spending, the mayor is looking to cut people,” he wrote in a letter to the editor. “I stand with our employees and for a government that can do more with less.”

Ricciardi has been a city employee for 21 years and is the operations manager for the parking utility. No employee should be affected by the deficit, he said.

“They knew it was coming but every employee’s upset,” Ricciardi said. “Every employee’s upset. There’s no doubt about it.”