Making Sense of Not Making Cents

We all know there is a youth unemployment crisis, but we don’t know what its impact is on their lives and the choices they are making. JobsFirstNYC has taken a deeper look in their report Barriers to Entry: The Increasing Challenges Faced by Young Adults in the New York City Labor Market written by James Parrott of the Fiscal Policy Institute and Lazar Treschan of Community Service Society. The findings aren’t surprising – young people are staying in school longer, but it’s not making a difference in helping them find jobs. 

The positive side of the crisis is reinforcing our nation’s education policy goals – graduation rates are increasing, more students are taking the SAT, more students are enrolling in college. But how long will that continue if the doors are closed to young people who need to work to put food on the table? 

Dreams diminished, discouragement on the rise – how will young people make sense of their lives? Will they just lower their expectations to get out of poverty? Will they start to find ways to earn income in the shadow economy? Will they drown their sorrows in drugs and drinking? We need to understand a lot more about how young people are making sense of not being able to make cents. If we can better understand it, then we can construct strategies that work. As JobsFirstNYC reminds us -- interventions need to be age and stage appropriate. 

JobFirst NYC does a great job of addressing the patterns of institutional racism that are producing a much more severe crisis for young people of color.  NYC’s “stop and frisk” policy is a chute right into the criminal justice system, where they will be metaphorically “chained,” unable to compete for jobs. With patterns of institutional racism aggregating across sectors and the system, the youth unemployment crisis is overwhelming communities of color. Our strategies need to take this into consideration by constantly documenting how policies and operational practices are corrupted by institutional racism. That way, appropriate corrections can be made.

Although the findings are specific to NYC, this report offers a good example of how other cities can construct research to support their advocacy efforts. There’s no reason to re-create the wheel...you can use this as a model and their well-designed graphics to expedite your own work. 

Below are the highlights of their study and their policy recommendations: 

Findings

• Young adults as a whole in New York City are working less but receiving more schooling, yet out of school out of work (OSOW) rates remain high.
• More competition from older workers is making it harder for young workers to find jobs.
• Less educated young workers are finding it harder to progress out of the lowest-paying jobs.
• The recession has led to significant increases in the portion of OSOW young people who are unemployed or discouraged workers, as jobs have become even scarcer for young people.
• Certain communities show alarmingly high concentrations of OSOW youth; 18 of the city’s 55 neighborhoods are home to over half of the city’s OSOW young adults.
• Over 7 percent of the 18–24 cohort are not in the labor force because they have family-care responsibilities. 

Policy Recommendations

• Increase opportunities for young adults to attain valuable skills. Ensuring that more young people have academic skills and certifications that carry value in the labor market will reduce the number of young people struggling to compete for jobs.

• Raise the quality of the jobs that employ young people. Increasing the minimum wage and extending the Earned Income Tax Credit to young workers will provide greater incentives for young people to work and will help keep them out of poverty.
• Expand childcare availability. Too many young adults (nearly 65,000) are out of the labor market due to caretaking responsibilities. These responsibilities stand in the way of obtaining and succeeding in the jobs that can be a foundation for their career development. New York City should expand the availability of subsidized, quality childcare supports to young adults in poor neighborhoods.
• Invest in more intensive workforce development efforts aimed at communities with high concentrations of OSOW young people. Government and private funders should increase their investment in programs that support the employability and employment of young adults, particularly in the handful of communities with high concentrations of OSOW young people.