Solution To The Crisis: Youth Employment Hearing

Thursday, 21 January 2016 14:43

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Key Findings from the Report: Lost: The Crisis Of Jobless and Out Of School Teens and Young Adults In Chicago, Illinois and the U.S.
Report produced by The Great Cities Institute at University of Illinois at Chicago:

Nearly 1/3 of all young Black men (20-24 years old) in the U.S. were jobless and out of school in 2014;
45% of all young Black men in Illinois were jobless and out of school in 2014;
47% of all young Black men in Chicago were jobless and out of school in 2014;
In the U.S., 79% of Black teens and 74% of Hispanic teens were jobless in 2014;
In Illinois, 84% of Black teens and 72% of Hispanic teens were jobless in 2014;
In Chicago, 88% of Black teens and 85% of Hispanic teens were jobless in 2014.

Hearing Summary

The Hearing went well, over 250 people including a large number of youth attended with 19 elected officials and other key agency officials.

The testimony by the youth was powerful and right to the point that jobs will help significantly reduce violence but there must be a significant number of jobs to make a real difference.

We hope that all Democrat and Republican Candidates will recognize this crisis and develop responses to address it in a way that will help significantly reduce the situation of youth joblessness.

Democratic Candidate, Bernie Sanders, has proposed $5.5 billion for youth (16-24 year olds) employment and training.

Democratic Candidate, Hillary Clinton, has proposed a $1,500 tax credit for companies to hire youth.

We await proposals by other Democratic and Republican presidential candidates to see how they address this crisis of youth joblessness.

The press coverage has been very strong, both electronic and print. The Chicago Tribune has published an excellent article on their website yesterday and an excellent front page article in their newspaper today, along with a very strong column. As of yesterday alone, there were over 100,000 views on the Chicago Tribune webpage.