NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) – A new report says New York City employees have missed thousands of hours of work so far this year, and transit problems are to blame.

The Independent Budget Office conducted a study of the city workers who took the time to fill out late slips.

“It’s about 17 or 18,000 total hours lost through the first half of 2017,” Deputy Director George Sweeting told WCBS 880’s Marla Diamond.

He said that number is likely higher, because the database does not include the NYPD, FDNY, Department of Education, public housing, health or hospital workers.

“The more followed way of looking at it, in a sense, is to look across – the way it’s increased over time,” Sweeting said.

The study found a 30 percent increase in lost hours due to subway delays over the past few years.

Nick Fuentes, with the Riders Alliance, said that should come as no surprise.

“The crisis is real and the problem has gotten considerably worse since 2016. That’s really clear in the data,” he said. “And yet we have everybody just kind of spinning their wheels and not solving any actual problems.”

The alliance plans to push for congestion pricing to fund the billions needed to fix the subway system once Albany lawmakers are back in session in January.

The Harlem subway derailment in late June nearly cost Jose Nieves, of the Bronx, his job.

“It was horrible. I made it to work about like half an hour to 45 minutes late, and I’m the opening manager,” he said.

The Daily News crunched the numbers based on the average city worker’s salary and found a half million dollars have gone to workers for time they were stuck in transit.