WASHINGTON – While the current economic crisis has driven youth unemployment to historic highs, witnesses told the House Education and Labor Committee today that falling youth employment is part of a much longer trend that needs to be addressed.
“The recession has only made a bad situation worse for younger workers. Even in periods of economic stability, fewer young people do not make the transition to the workforce. They face challenges completing high school and obtaining the skills they need to succeed,” said U.S. Rep. George Miller (D-CA), chairman of the committee. “For these young people, alternative education and job training models provide a critical link to the workplace.”
“The recession has only made a bad situation worse for younger workers. Even in periods of economic stability, fewer young people do not make the transition to the workforce. They face challenges completing high school and obtaining the skills they need to succeed,” said U.S. Rep. George Miller (D-CA), chairman of the committee. “For these young people, alternative education and job training models provide a critical link to the workplace.”
Matthew Segal, the founder and national co-chair of 80 Million Strong for Young Americans Jobs Coalition, which advocates on behalf issues facing the generation born after 1980, said that employment opportunities are falling and will have a lasting impact on younger Americans.
“The current economic crisis is disproportionately affecting young Americans, digging a hole that will place a long-term burden on our generation as we attempt to build a stronger future workforce,” said Segal. “Among the many national and global challenges today’s 20-somethings face, we are the first generation likely to be less better off than our parents.”
The employment rate among 16 to 24 year-olds has steadily declined by nearly 20 percent over the past decade to its lowest level since World War II. Recognizing the historic problems facing young workers, Congress included as a part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act an additional $1.2 billion over two years to beef up youth jobs programs, including summer jobs.
“It was critical that we intervened in summer 2009 by providing summer employment experiences and other services for youth,” said Jane Oates, Assistant Secretary of Labor for the Employment and Training Administration. “The lessons we all learned in our first jobs made lasting impressions on our decisions about work over the course of our lifetime. For this generation of young people, the education and skills that they need to fully engage in meaningful work is fundamental to their success and the future of our country.”
The additional funding in the Recovery Act emphasized summer employment opportunities, as well as year-round employment activities for older youth and at-risk populations. YouthBuild USA is one such program that provides disconnected young adults with the educational opportunities and skills training needed to help secure a decent paying job through building affordable housing. Since 1992, YouthBuild has served 84,000 predominately minority and at-risk students who helped to produce 18,000 units of affordable housing.
“What attracts disconnected young people to YouthBuild is the comprehensiveness of the program coupled with the philosophy of profound respect for their intelligence and inherent value,” said Dorothy Stoneman, president and founder of YouthBuild. “The act of building homes for people who need them, being seen in the community as a hero instead of a hoodlum, changes their identity and relationship to society.”
According to research conducted by the Economic Policy Institute, the consequences of reduced work among teens means that they have fewer long-term employment opportunities, reduced earnings, and a decrease in labor productivity in the future. Although the magnitude of the effect decreases over time, the impact is still long-term, suppressing wages for more than a decade after entering the workforce.
“When many young people who would like to work cannot find work for an extended period of time, there is a risk that some of them will give up on the formal labor market completely and become discouraged workers,” said Algernon Austin, director of Economic Policy Institute’s program on race, ethnicity and the economy. “In the long-term, work experience acquired as a youth is correlated with better social and economic outcomes in later years.”
The House also recently approved the Student Aid and Fiscal Responsibility Act, which among other things, would make a $10 billion investment to help prepare young workers for the jobs of the future by strengthening partnerships among community colleges, businesses and job training programs that will align community college curricula with the needs of high-wage, high-demand industries.
For more information on the hearing, click here.
“The current economic crisis is disproportionately affecting young Americans, digging a hole that will place a long-term burden on our generation as we attempt to build a stronger future workforce,” said Segal. “Among the many national and global challenges today’s 20-somethings face, we are the first generation likely to be less better off than our parents.”
The employment rate among 16 to 24 year-olds has steadily declined by nearly 20 percent over the past decade to its lowest level since World War II. Recognizing the historic problems facing young workers, Congress included as a part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act an additional $1.2 billion over two years to beef up youth jobs programs, including summer jobs.
“It was critical that we intervened in summer 2009 by providing summer employment experiences and other services for youth,” said Jane Oates, Assistant Secretary of Labor for the Employment and Training Administration. “The lessons we all learned in our first jobs made lasting impressions on our decisions about work over the course of our lifetime. For this generation of young people, the education and skills that they need to fully engage in meaningful work is fundamental to their success and the future of our country.”
The additional funding in the Recovery Act emphasized summer employment opportunities, as well as year-round employment activities for older youth and at-risk populations. YouthBuild USA is one such program that provides disconnected young adults with the educational opportunities and skills training needed to help secure a decent paying job through building affordable housing. Since 1992, YouthBuild has served 84,000 predominately minority and at-risk students who helped to produce 18,000 units of affordable housing.
“What attracts disconnected young people to YouthBuild is the comprehensiveness of the program coupled with the philosophy of profound respect for their intelligence and inherent value,” said Dorothy Stoneman, president and founder of YouthBuild. “The act of building homes for people who need them, being seen in the community as a hero instead of a hoodlum, changes their identity and relationship to society.”
According to research conducted by the Economic Policy Institute, the consequences of reduced work among teens means that they have fewer long-term employment opportunities, reduced earnings, and a decrease in labor productivity in the future. Although the magnitude of the effect decreases over time, the impact is still long-term, suppressing wages for more than a decade after entering the workforce.
“When many young people who would like to work cannot find work for an extended period of time, there is a risk that some of them will give up on the formal labor market completely and become discouraged workers,” said Algernon Austin, director of Economic Policy Institute’s program on race, ethnicity and the economy. “In the long-term, work experience acquired as a youth is correlated with better social and economic outcomes in later years.”
The House also recently approved the Student Aid and Fiscal Responsibility Act, which among other things, would make a $10 billion investment to help prepare young workers for the jobs of the future by strengthening partnerships among community colleges, businesses and job training programs that will align community college curricula with the needs of high-wage, high-demand industries.
For more information on the hearing, click here.
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