National Youth Employment Coalition: Information Center


Dire Straits for Many Workers: The Economic Case for New Job Creation and Retraining Strategies in 2010 for the Nation's Young, and Dislocated Blue Collar Workers - Center for Labor Market Studies, Dec. 2009
	The severe teen joblessness problem is a year-round problem not confined to the summer. A job stimulus program for teens is needed that will create jobs for youth in the public and nonprofit sectors and provide economic incentives through wage subsidies for private for profit employers to hire teens. The youth job creation programs would provide both year-round and summer jobs. A wage subsidy offer of 30% of the gross wage for 6 to 9 months would be provided to hire targeted teens with a good faith effort to keep them on the payroll after the wage subsidy is over. Sustained, private sector work experience is needed to boost the long-term employment and earnings of teens in the U.S. We also need to have teens exposed to firms in a much broader set of industries. Teen workers are increasingly confined to jobs in retail stores, fast-food restaurants, health care, and low level services. They are increasingly shut out of jobs in construction, manufacturing, utilities, transportation, finance, professional services, and state/local government. Their lack of broad-based work exposure is harming both their immediate and longer term job prospects and earnings. Employers are increasingly critical of their lack of employability skills and their poor work behavior, but they can only gain such skills through work itself. No demographic group is in more need of immediate job opportunities than teens and young adults (20-24). - December 2009

American Recovery and Reinvestment Act Summer Employment Implementation Survey Summary
	In August 2009, the National Youth Employment Coalition (NYEC) conducted an online survey of membersÃ?Â¢?? experiences implementing Workforce Investment Act (WIA) youth activities funding authorized by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA). NYEC also convened two conference calls on ARRA implementation, each featuring four NYEC members as panelists.

The Collapse of the Nation's Male Teen and Young Adult Labor Market, 2000-2009 - July 2009
	The Collapse of the Nation's Male Teen and Young Adult Labor Market, 2000-2009: The Lost Generation of Young Male Workers, Andrew Sum, Joseph McLaughlin, Sheila Palma, Center for Labor Market Studies, Northeastern University. The nationâ??s male teens (16-19) have experienced a massive depression in their labor market conditions since 2000. In the June 2009 Employment Situation, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that the employment rate of the nationâ??s male teens had fallen to 27.6%, the lowest employment rate by far in the month of June at any time since 1948 (Chart 2). At no time in the countryâ??s post-World War II history had the June employment rate of male teens ever fallen below 30% and at no time prior to June 2002 had the June employment rate of male teens fallen below 40%. In June of 2000, 46% of the nationâ??s male teens were employed as were 50% of those near the peak of the cyclical boom in June 1989 and 54% of those in June 1978 when federal job creation programs for teens under the CETA legislation, the Youth Employment and Demonstration Projects Act of 1977, and CETA public service employment programs were at their peak enrollment levels.6 The employment rate of male teens in June 2009 was barely one half as high as it was in June 1978 and close to 20 percentage points below its value in June 2000. This truly constitutes a labor market depression for male teens in the U.S.

Disconnected Youth: A Look at 16- to 24-Year Olds Who Are Not Working or In School (Apr. 2009)
	This Congressional Research Service (CRS) analysis expands the existing research on disconnected youth. The analysis uses Current Population Survey (CPS) data to construct a definition of â??disconnected.â?Ì This definition includes noninstitutionalized youth ages 16 through 24 who did not work or attend school anytime during a previous year and are presently not working or in school (usually sometime in the first quarter of the current year). Authors: Adrienne L. Fernandes, Thomas Gabe

The Tax and Transfer Fiscal Impacts of Dropping Out of High School in Philadelphia City and Suburbs - January 2009
	This report was developed to address the drop out crisis in Philadelphia and explores the economic prospects for youth who do not graduate from high school and the ripple effects for employers and the city. 1/30/09

The Cost of Doing Nothing: The Economic Impact of Recession Induced Child Poverty - December 2008
	"The Cost of Doing Nothing: The Economic Impact of Recession Induced Child Poverty", Michael Linden, Senior Director of Tax & Budget Policy, First Focus. The United States is now a year into what many predict will be a very serious recession. Economic turbulence of this type is likely to have far-ranging consequences that are not limited to the immediate future. Recent estimates are that, as a result of the economic downturn, an additional 2.6 to 3.3 million children will fall into poverty. Allowing these children to fall into poverty will prove to be a significant long-term drag on the U.S. economy. In fact, an addition of 3 million children to the ranks of the poor, would mean an overall economic loss of at least $1.7 trillion over the lifetime of these children. That amounts to a yearly loss of about 0.27% of GDP, or $35 billion dollars per year. - December 12, 2008

Employment and Training Occasional Paper 2008-12: Evaluation of Youth Opportunity Grant Initiative (2008)
	Employment and Training Occasional Paper 2008-12: Evaluation of Youth Opportunity Grant Initiative by Russell H. Jackson, Jamie Diamondopoulos, Carol Pistorino, Paul Zador, John Lopdell, Juanita Lucas-McLean, Andy Sum, Ron D'Amico, Lee Bruno, Decision Informatin Resources, Inc. In 2000, the U.S. Department of Labor Employment and Training Administration awarded grants to 36 communities to provide services including education, employment, support, and leadership development to youth ages 14 to 21 in high poverty areas. The grants ranged from $3 million to $44 million over five years (2000 to 2005). The objective of the Youth Opportunity Grants Initiative (YO) was to concentrate a sufficient level of funds in high poverty areas to improve the long-term educational and employment outcomes of youth living in these areas and to serve a high enough proportion of those youth to positively affect peer pressure. The study concluded that YO succeeded in concentrating large amounts of resources in high poverty areas and reaching a large proportion of the youth in those areas. The study also concluded that positive community-level impacts are achievable for communities such as those served by YO, especially with regard to educational outcomes. 2008

A Collective Responsibility, a Collective Work: Supporting the Path to Positive Life Outcomes for Youth in Economically Distressed Communities - May 2008
	A Collective Responsibility, a Collective Work: Supporting the Path to Positive Life Outcomes for Youth in Economically Distressed Communities by Rhonda Tsoi-A-Fatt, Center for Law and Social Policy Many poor communities lack resources to provide comprehensive support to young people to allow them to transition to productive adulthood. To bring focus to this deleterious situation, data from 10 communities across the country will be used to highlight the magnitude of the challenges faced by youth growing up in these cities. Cities were selected based upon their graduation rates (less than 60 percent) and their rates of child poverty (greater than 30 percent). The 10 cities highlighted in this paper are: Atlanta, Baltimore, Boston, Chicago, Cleveland, Houston, Indianapolis, Kansas City, Oakland, and Philadelphia. These cities represent both areas of the country traditionally labeled as "distressed" as well as others where problems are more masked because the community appears to be thriving. - May 2008

Geography Matters: Child Well-Being In The States-April 2008
	This report shows just how wide the gaps are among the states on critical indicators of child well-being. First, it looks at commonly recognized measurements of child well-being, mostly from official government sources, such as poverty and fatality indicators. It shows how the top state compares to the bottom state for each indicator, and how the top 10 states and bottom 10 states compare. Various other displays of this data can be found at www.everychildmatters.org. Also on the website are the Administration's proposed 2009 budget cuts in children's services. All the material from this report can be reprinted and distributed copyright free. April 2008