Help Wanted: Jobs For Chicago’s Youth

Jobs For Youth/Chicago has opportunities for Chicago teens and young adults

CHICAGO, IL. (June 3, 2008) – Twenty-four students murdered from Chicago Public Schools from September 2007- April 2008. Most of them shot. A predicted summer teen employment rate of 34.2%, a rate below last year’s historically low employment numbers. It is a bleak picture for Chicago’s teens. But there is hope.

Jobs For Youth/Chicago (JFY) has more job orders than clients. Currently, there are at least 964 unfilled jobs from 229 different employers. Since 1979, JFY has made over 25,000 job placements for Chicago’s low-income 17-24 year olds who have their high school diploma or GED. Working with over 600 Chicagoland employers, JFY prepares Chicago’s teens and young adults with the skills necessary to find a job. From July 1, 2005 – June 30, 2007, Jobs For Youth has trained and placed 1,682 youth making 2,907 job placements with an average wage of $8.68/hour.

Youth employment is crucial to the economy and the sustainability of businesses. In a sample of 137 students that Jobs For Youth placed into jobs under its TIF (tax-increment finance district) contract, JFY’s young men and women had total earnings of $1.75 million (earnings over five quarters in 2004 and 2005). Jobs For Youth’s investment into these students was $347,000. Over $1.4 million was the net investment into Chicago’s economy.

"We know that a job is the very essence of our free market, whether you have a GED or PhD," says Robert Barnett, Executive Director of Jobs For Youth/Chicago.

Jobs For Youth does not provide summer jobs. Instead, it provides full-time or part-time permanent jobs leading to careers. In fact, some of our employers are now looking for clients who will have longevity at their company with opportunities for advancement. JFY has job orders from a variety of industries including: financial/banking, healthcare, retail, transportation, warehouse and logistics, and hospitality.

As a recent study released by the Center for Labor Market Studies from Northeastern University points out, younger teens and adults (16-24), males, Black and Hispanic youth, and low-income youth are more at-risk of joblessness this coming summer. In FY07, over 92% of Jobs For Youth’s students were African-American and close to 6% were Hispanic.

Jobs For Youth provides an alternative to the bleak statistics for Chicago’s teens. It is an alternative to the streets where gun violence is making the news and opportunity for success seems an unreachable dream for some. Chicagoans don’t have to look overseas to help someone in poverty, someone who regularly sees bullets in his own neighborhood, someone who has to choose between eating breakfast and having money to get to work or school and someone who is seen as the exception when he attends school. It is places like Jobs For Youth that provide opportunity. Like JFY’s tagline says – A LIFE. A JOB. A FUTURE.

About Jobs For Youth/Chicago, Inc.

Jobs For Youth/ Chicago, Inc. (JFY) helps young men and women from low-income families become a part of the economic mainstream; and, in the process, provides the business community with motivated job-ready workers. JFY offers pre-employment training, GED preparation and job placement services to youth that are between the ages of 17 and 24. Established in 1979, JFY has made over 25,000 job placement to help Chicago’s deserving youth enter the workforce. More information is available at www.jfychicago.org, including a short video about JFY programs and services.

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