Summer days not so great for America’s jobless young people
This a guest contributor article written by Greg Fischer and Chauncy Lennon. Mr. Fischer is the Mayor of Louisville and Mr. Lennon is Head of Workforce Initiatives at JPMorgan Chase.
As the U.S. continues its slow-and-steady economic recovery, monthly job-growth reports are a hopeful drumbeat for just about everyone – everyone but our young people. Without the necessary commitments, 2015 could be another lost summer for our jobless teenagers.
Simply put, there are fewer summer jobs available nationwide for all young people this year. This will significantly impact young people of color from low-income households who have one-fifth the likelihood of landing a coveted summer job compared to white youth from affluent families.
Certainly, youth unemployment is an issue of social inequality. But it’s also an issue of economic mobility. And it has led to a more of a crisis than many people realize. Summer jobs shouldn’t just be about helping young people earn pocket change for video games and other youthful diversions. And it’s not even about keeping youth productively occupied during the summer break from school.
A summer job is often a young person’s first experience with the workplace, and a critical step in learning skills they need to be personally and professionally successful in the future. It introduces them to working life, professional interests and relationships, and perhaps even to a place where they can build a career.
For some time, city summer job programs were simply focused on finding ways to keep kids busy between the last day of school and Labor Day. But a new trend is emerging. Many cities are developing successful, skills-based youth employment programs. In Louisville, for example, there is the Mayor’s SummerWorks program for 16-21-year-olds. It is operated by KentuckianaWorks, the region’s workforce development agency, which works with partners to recruit, train and place young people in seven-week summer jobs. These jobs make a difference, to the people who fill them and learn a skill and to our communities that benefit from economic growth.
Brihanna Thompson got a job through Louisville’s SummerWorks program with Mark's Feed Store restaurant, starting as a hostess when she was 16. When the summer ended she was hired on part-time and continued working through high school and college. Now 22 and about to complete her associate degree in culinary arts (baking and pastry) at Sullivan University in Louisville, she is a line leader at Mark’s. She keeps the kitchen working smoothly and enjoys baking the restaurant’s signature buttermilk pies.
It took a public-private sector program, an employer with some vision, and in Brihanna’s case a wonderful mentor to help her along the way. Now Brihanna has training, skills, experience, a solid career path, and a goal to start her own bakery.
There are other success stories like Brihanna’s but still many fewer than there should be. The prospects for young people this summer have worsened because there is a lack of government and private sector support for youth employment programs. In fact, only 46 percent of young people who applied for summer employment programs were accepted last year, according to research from JPMorgan Chase & Co. in 14 major U.S. cities. The report shows a nearly 40 percent decline in summer youth employment over the past 12 years.
Ironically, the decline in summer jobs for youth comes at a time when employers are demanding a more skilled workforce. But, if we want and need more skilled and experienced workers, we must invest in more opportunities for young people to get that experience.
We believe there are three steps that can be taken to create more and better employment opportunities for America’s young people and advance economic opportunity:
Strengthen infrastructure and connections among programs: Summer programs need to be connected to each other and to local workforce systems. Developing standards for pre-job training, skills development, and performance measurement could benefit many cities and employers.
Deepen private sector engagement: Summer youth employment programs are looking for resources and jobs from the private sector. Private companies can share information about key areas of job growth and the skills required for those jobs, and also help recruit professional mentors.
Enhance focus on skills: Focusing on skills in demand by employers can better prepare young people to compete in the workforce.
Summer jobs aren’t just nice-to-have time-fillers. They are a proven, common-sense way to provide experiences, skill-building and learning opportunities for our young people.
It’s easy to say young people are our future. What they need from us is help getting the opportunities to create their own futures as productive, skilled and employed members of the community.
