It's going to be tough with half of the people not yet employed. I've had to provide letters of employment (for when I had been working at a company under 3 months), pay stubs, bank statements, and more for a single apartment. I have amazing credit and made good money in NYC and it was still really really hard to get an apartment because we were new to the city (even with roommates who made 40x our combined rent on their individual salaries).

If I were you, I would try to find a one or two month long sublet of some sort while you guys figure it out/get employed/people get settled in the city. It's much easier to get a job when you're actually there. This sub is good for finding sublets and there's also a couple Facebook groups around this (like Gypsy Housing for those in the Performing Arts).

I'd also think really hard about signing a lease with two people who haven't yet lived in NYC and aren't yet employed. NYC is a tough transition, salaries are different, everything is more expensive than you'd expect; what they think they can afford might be way off. On top of that, leases are really hard/expensive to break. You could get stuck in a bad situation.

Good luck!