Coverage for New Teen Employment Report Released on January 30, 2015

Press and Media January 30, 2015 Hearing at the Chicago Urban League

Coverage includes: Chicago Tribune, Catalyst Chicago, Black Business Now - Harlem, Black Enterprise, Bloomberg Business, HeraldOnline.com, The Washington Post, and Chicago Magazine

It was also covered on WTTW Channel 11 Chicago Tonight, CBS Channel 2, WBEZ, ABC Channel 7, WSNS Channel 44, and WGBO Channel 66 January 29, 2015 Coverage for New Teen Employment Report Released on January 30, 2015

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Friday, January 30, 2015 The Midwest’s largest reporting team Teen unemployment remains stubbornly high, study finds By Alejandra Cancino

Angelo Ross said he hunted for a job for three years before landing an internship at a fast-food restaurant in November. For the first time in his life, the Far South Side high school senior said the minimum wage job gave him a sense of security. But he fears that security will end this week, when his internship ends. At 18, he lives with his mom, eight sib- lings, and four nieces and nephews. Thanks to his paycheck, he’s been contributing $30 to $60 a month to the family budget. “I feel the necessity of things I don’t have,” Ross said. A new report released Friday shows just how hard teens have it in Chicago and nation- wide. Teens continue to be displaced from entry level jobs by older workers and college graduates, despite the rebound in the nation’s Angelo Ross, 18, center, attends a hearing about teen joblessness in Chicago on Friday. Ross may soon lose his internship at a job market, according to the report, released restaurant. (Anthony Souffle, Chicago Tribune) by the Drexel University Center for Labor Markets and Policy. once reserved for teenagers, Harrington said. spent two months applying for jobs at a rate About 45 percent of teens held a job in At the same time, college graduates with grim of nine a night, she said, without landing a 2000. That rate plunged after the dot-com job prospects settled for positions below their single interview. recession of the early oughts and bottomed skills level, also displacing teenagers. “After a while you get discouraged,” she during the Great Recession, when only about Chicago black teens have the lowest em- said. a quarter of teenagers held jobs. In 2014 the ployment rate at 10.5 percent, followed by rate of teen employment inched up slightly to Hispanic teens at 21 percent. By comparison, Community organizations said some of 27 percent. 30 percent of white teens are employed. their programs to help teenagers are facing “When the economy got beat up … it’s re- Ross, the teenager with the fast food in- cuts. ally the young kids who felt that pain,” said ternship, said other teens in his neighborhood The Gads Hill Center, which has locations Paul Harrington, one of the authors of the re- turn buckets into drums in hopes passers-by in North Lawndale, Brighton Park and Pilsen, port, at a yearly hearing on the state of teen like their beats and drop some change. In his received a letter this month from the Illinois employment held Friday at the Chicago Ur- hardest years, he’s eaten three meals a day of Department of Human Services informing it ban League. Public officials and about 300 oatmeal with honey. that there is no funding for the grant it had people representing 17 community organiza- One after another, teenagers asked public been awarded, said Bryan Stokes, director of tions attended the two-hour event. officials, including aldermen and Springfield programs at the center. In Chicago, the employment rate of work- lawmakers, to continue supporting training “You are to cease any and all operations ers between the ages of 16 and 19is among programs that have taught them how to dress, funded by this grant, effective immediately,” the lowest in the nation at 16 percent, down how to address managers and how to dream the letter read in part. from 21 percent before the Great Recession. of a better future. Stokes said the $221,292 grant was ear- The figure is troublesome, Harrington said, “Young people can’t be what they can’t marked to train 25 people ages 17 to 24 and because teenagers who work fare better later see,” said David Elan, 24, adding that he’s place them in jobs for 17 weeks. in life, earning wages 20 to 25 percent high- now finishing a degree in communications, Sen. Donne Trotter, D-Chicago, urged er than those who didn’t have jobs as teens. thanks to mentors who steered him away young people to vote and voice their concerns Employed teens also are more likely to en- from gangs. in Springfield. The state, he said, doesn’t roll and graduate from college because work Quanisha Davidson, 21, told them about have money for everything, but it’s important teaches them persistence, dependability and the violence plaguing her Austin neighbor- that lawmakers from other districts and the self-control. hood and how that violence is tied to unem- governor’s office hear their stories. “This is an economic catastrophe,” Har- ployment. “We are on your side, but we also need rington said. “This is lost upward mobility.” “Poverty is the parent of crime,” said Da- your strength,” Trotter said. Teen unemployment has been exacerbated vidson, who takes classes at Harold Washing- because older people delayed retirement or ton College and makes $9.25 per hour as a re-entered the labor market during the re- youth leader in a community organization. cession, snatching entry level jobs that were Before landing that job late last year, she Friday, January 30, 2015 The Midwest’s largest reporting team Teen unemployment continues to rise in Chicago

By Alex Nitkin

The economic recovery has done Hispanics and just nine percent for improve its career education programs nothing to curb joblessness among whites. and tie them more directly to post-sec- Chicago teenagers, according to a ondary schooling. (See our Catalyst In new report from the Center for La- “In the past year or two, the econo- Depth on career education.) bor Markets and Policy at Drexel my has been moving forward, pumping University. out more and more jobs, but somehow But the results have been mixed. The what we’re seeing is that these kids are district has launched new programs in Instead, youth employment has moving backward,” says Jack Wuest, high-demand career areas. But overall, plunged, especially among African executive director of the Alternative most students don’t finish a full- se American young men, and is now Schools Network. “What we’re seeing quence of career-related classes, only at its lowest level in years. And the is that a lot of low-earning and part- a small percentage of job credentials poorest households are hardest hit: time jobs that typically go to kids are that students earn lead directly to a job Only 11 percent of Chicago teens in now being taken by adults.” and the district has a limited number of households with an income below internships available to offer students. $20,000 annually were employed Reversing the trend in 2013, compared to 30 percent of Teen employment creates a ripple teens in households with incomes In order for the trend to reverse, effect for the whole city, Wuest points between $100,000 and $150,000. Wuest says, it’s critical that the gov- out, and not just in the economic sector. ernment support efforts to expand job A report by the University of Chicago’s The report, jointly prepared with opportunities for adolescents at every Crime Lab found that young people the Alternative Schools Network, level. who participated in the One Summer is being released today and will be program were 51 percent less likely the focus of a hearing on Friday at Yet government support could well to commit violent crimes, and slightly the Chicago Urban League. It’s the be in jeopardy. In 2013 and 2014, Il- less likely to drop out of school. Be- sixth report on the topic published linois spent $20 million each year on yond that, Wuest says, having a paying in as many years. youth employment, with the money job teaches many of the skills neces- awarded to dozens of different orga- sary to live a successful life. Overall, teen employment has nizations, including the Alternative declined dramatically in the past 15 Schools Network. But with new Gov. “Having a job teaches things like the years, from 32 percent employment Bruce Rauner vowing to cut the state’s importance of showing up on time, and in 1998 to 13 percent in 2013, ac- budget, it’s unclear whether such how to work with other people, and cording to the report. spending will continue. builds self-confidence—these are the skills it takes to be a responsible adult,” The study also links joblessness Locally, Mayor Rahm Emanuel is Wuest said. “We’re just hoping the and lack of schooling, painting an hoping to expand his signature One state and city continue the expansion, even starker picture of the problem Summer jobs program, which last year because in a lot of neighborhoods the and its link to race: The percentage created job opportunities for about jobs just aren’t there, and businesses of 16-to-24-year-olds in Chicago 20,000 youth in low-income areas of aren’t hiring.” who are both unemployed and out the city. of school—what the report calls “disconnected”--is 28 percent for And in recent years, Chicago Pub- African Americans, 16 percent for lic Schools has sought to overhaul and February 2, 2015 Report: A staggering 91% Of Chicago Black Male Teens Are Jobless

By Staff A new report finds that Black teen employment rates in Chicago have reached historically low levels, with nine out of ten Black teens jobless during 2012-2013.

Dubbed ‘A Frayed Connection: Joblessness among Teens in Chicago,’ the report found that the economic recession had a disproportionate adverse impact on the employment prospects of male teen residents of Chicago and the decline in jobless rates among teens has continued during the period of ‘recovery’ from the recession.

There’s a strong positive relationship between household income and teen employment rates and as household incomes increased, so did the likelihood that a Chicago teen had a job, the report found.

“A large proportion of teens and young adult residents of Chicago are disconnected from school and work – two activities in which most young persons are engaged,” according to the report, conducted by the Center for Labor Markets and Policy, Drexel University.

Disconnection rates vary sharply by race-ethnicity, with the highest disconnection rate among Black 16-to-24-year olds: 28 percent; for the city’s Hispanic youth it’s 16 percent and just 9 percent among non-Hispanic White youth. A stunning fifty percent of 20-to-24-year old Black male residents of the city are not working and not enrolled in school. Thursday, February 5, 2015 Chicago A Leader in Youth Joblessness New report shows 91% of Chicago black male teens are unemployed

By Cristie Leondis A report released Friday provides shocking statistics on Chicago’s unemployment rate. A Frayed Connection: Joblessness Among Teens in Chicago gathered data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics Current Population Survey and the American Community Service to provide an accurate analysis. The study will be released at the Chicago Urban League Youth Employment: A Smart Investment Youth Hearing. Chicago’s soaring jobless rate especially affects low-income black and Hispanic teens.

Teens and young adults that are out of school are currently facing a bleak job market. In 2012- 2013, a stunning 91% of Chicago black male teens were unemployed. In addition to earning less money, black male teens in Chicago experience a higher percentage of poverty. Jobless youth are at a much higher risk of developing health problems and behavioral issues. The purpose of the meeting is to raise awareness in Chicago; to urge the use of investments that will create meaningful labor in the near future; and to provide financial benefits to the youth down the road.

Panelists scheduled to appear at the youth hearing include Illinois State Senators Mattie Hunter, Emil Jones III, Heather Steans, and Donne Trotter. Along with Illinois State Representatives Mo- nique Davis, Will Davis, Marcus Evans Jr., La Shawn Ford, Elizabeth Hernadez, Thaddeus Jones, and Rita Mayfield. Chicago’s Department of Family and Support Services Commissioner Evelyn Diaz is also expected to attend. Members from the Chicago Board of Education, including its Vice President Jesse Ruiz and President and CEO Andrea Zopp, are to be present at the event. In addition to the above guests, City of Chicago Alderman Jason Ervin, Emma Mitts, Harry Osterman, Latasha Thomas, and Karen Chavers, Paul Harrington, and Jack Quest are expected to attend. The discussion is taking place Friday, Jan. 30, from 9:30 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. EST at the Chicago Urban League. Chicago, January 29, 2015 Tomorrow: New Teen Employment Report To Be Released At Youth Hearing

A new report providing a comparative analysis of youth unemployment between Chicago, Illinois and the United States will be released at the Chicago Urban League Youth Employment: A Smart Investment Youth Hearing. Despite a growing national economic recovery, Chicago is one of the nation’s leaders in teenage youth joblessness with low-income Black and Hispanic teens continuing to fall significantly behind. The report, A Frayed Connection: Joblessness among Teens in Chicago, conducted by Dr. Paul Harrington from the Center for Labor Markets and Policy at Drexel University uses recent American Community Survey and U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics Current Population Survey data and is part of an ongoing series commissioned by the Alternative Schools Network (ASN). Former out of school high school students from ASN schools will present testimony to a panel of state and local public officials re- garding the impact of youth joblessness. Additional hearing co-sponsors include Westside Health Authority, Chicago Area Project, Black United Fund of Illinois and Youth Connection Charter School. WHO: Youth Hearing Panelists will include: • Janice Collier on behalf of Governor Bruce Rauner • IL State Senators Mattie Hunter, District 33; Emil Jones III, District 14; Heather Steans, District 7; and Donne Trotter, District 17 • IL State Representatives Monique Davis, District 27; Will Davis, District 30; Marcus Evans Jr., District 33; La Shawn Ford, District 8; Elizabeth Hernandez, District 24;Thaddeus Jones, District 29; and Rita Mayfield District 60 • Chicago’s Department of Family and Support Services Commissioner Evelyn, Diaz on behalf of Mayor Rahm Emanuel • City of Chicago Aldermen Jason Ervin, Ward 28; Emma Mitts, Ward 37; Harry Osterman, Ward 48; and Latasha Thomas,Ward 17 • Cook County Commissioner Robert Steele • Karen Chavers on behalf of Cook County Commissioner Larry Suffredin • Paul Harrington, Center for Labor Markets and Policy, Drexel University • Jack Wuest, Executive Director, Alternative Schools Network • Andrea Zopp, President & CEO, Chicago Urban League • Jesse Ruiz, Vice President, Chicago Board of Education WHEN: 9:30 a.m. - 11:30 a.m., Friday, January 30, 2015 WHERE: Chicago Urban League, 4510 S. Michigan Avenue, Chicago, IL WHY: Out of school and out of work teens and young adults (“disconnected youth”) face adverse labor market consequences in their adult years, including higher incidence of unemployment, reduced earnings, and higher incidence of poverty. Jobless youth are also suscepti- ble to various behavioral and health problems. Investments in creating meaningful work for these youth will pay dividends immediately and for years to come. SOURCE Alternative Schools Network December 26, 2014 Chicago gave hundreds of high-risk kids a summer job. Violent crime arrests plummeted. By Emily Badger The study included 1,634 teens at 13 have idle time over the summer to high schools. They were, on average, commit crime — but that theory In a year full of distressing stories C students, almost all of them eli- doesn’t explain the long-term de- — especially about race, crime and gible for free or reduced-price lunch. clines in violent arrests that occurred violence in urban neighborhoods Twenty percent of the group had well after the summer program was — this one points to some hope. already been arrested, and 20 percent over. Earlier this December, we covered had already been victims of crime. Heller, in fact, found that most of a summer jobs program in Chicago Some of the students were given the decline came a few months later. that appeared to lead to fewer teen- part-time jobs through the program, That long-term benefit suggests that age arrests for violent crime. Our working 25 hours a week at minimum students who had access to jobs may original story, republished below, wage ($8.25 in Illinois) with govern- have then found crime a less attrac- also reminds us that policy solutions ment or non-profit employers. They tive alternative to work. Or perhaps are possible — and possibly even worked as camp counselors, office their time on the job taught them how inexpensive. assistants, or in community gardens, the labor market values education. Or among other places. Other students maybe the work experience may have A couple of years ago, the city in the treatment group worked 15 given them skills that enabled them of Chicago started a summer jobs hours a week at similar jobs, but also to be more successful — and less program for teenagers attending high received 10 hours a week of “social- prone to getting in trouble — back in schools in some of the city’s high- emotional learning” time, where school. crime, low-income neighborhoods. they learned skills to manage their This one study can’t identify exact- The program was meant, of course, emotions or behavior that might get ly why a summer jobs program might to connect students to work. But of- in the way of employment. All of change the trajectory of teens at risk ficials also hoped that it might curb the students in the program received of becoming violent. It also raises the the kinds of problems — like higher mentors as well. The teenagers in the possibility that teenagers with sum- crime — that arise when there’s no control group participated in neither mer jobs might have more money to work to be found. part of the program. spend on drugs (drug arrests for the Research on the program con- Heller used Chicago Police Depart- treatment group were slightly higher ducted by the University of Chicago ment data to follow what happened than for the control). These results Crime Lab and just published in to all of the students in the 16 months do suggest that cities could get a lot the journal Science suggests that after the program began. In the crime of payoff for the minimal cost of a these summer jobs have actually had data, there was no difference between summer-jobs program — particularly such an effect: Students who were the students who got the counseling if it targets teens before they drop out randomly assigned to participate in and those who did not, suggesting of school. the program had 43 percent fewer that the group working 25 hours a As Heller writes: violent-crime arrests over 16 months, week may have acquired some of The results echo a common compared to students in a control the same social-emotional skills on conclusion in education and health group. the job. There was a big difference, research: that public programs might That number is striking for a though, in the violent crime arrest do more with less by shifting from couple of reasons: It implies that a data between the teenagers who got remediation to prevention. The find- relatively short (and inexpensive) jobs and those who did not. ings make clear that such programs intervention like an eight-week sum- A lot of things could be going on need not be hugely costly to improve mer jobs program can have a lasting here. Teenagers who might have outcomes for disadvantaged youth; effect on teenage behavior. And it committed crime to get money would well-targeted, low-cost employment lends empirical support to a popular no longer need to when they have a policies can make a substantial refrain by advocates: “Nothing stops job. If their added income allowed difference, even for a problem as a bullet like a job.” parents to work less, they may also destructive and complex as youth Researcher Sara Heller conducted have gotten more adult supervision. violence. a randomized control trial with the It’s also possible that students who program, in partnership with the city. were busy working simply didn’t How a Chicago Summer Job Program Reduced Violent Crime December 15, 2014

Students from some of Chicago’s most dangerous neighborhoods were given good jobs and mentors to guide them through. The effects continued well beyond the end of the program By Whet Moser One of the more promising areas of inquiry at the intersection of education and crime reduction is “soft skills.” In education, it might be traits like persistence, in the research of James Heckman; in crime- reduction, it might be “non-cognitive” skills like self-control, as in the promising results from the cognitive-behavioral-therapy ap- proach applied through the Becoming a Man initiative. They’re two sides of the same coin—explicitly teaching life skills that kids are expected to pick up implicitly as they grow up.

A recent study, reminiscent of the Be- coming a Man study—and by the same lead author, the University of Pennsylvania’s Sara Heller—brings very positive findings: a 43 Community garden work is just one of the jobs in One Summer Plus, a summer-jobs program open to students in high-violence Chicago public high percent reduction in violent crime among schools. PHOTO: ANTONIO PEREZ/CHICAGO TRIBUNE disadvantaged high school youth over a 16-month span, well after the skills program you’re really acting as a camp counselor able strategies for having this kind of impact ended. And it suggests that there are differ- and a role model for younger youth.” The on youths for teaching them the skills they ent, equally effective routes to imparting students worked part-time for eight weeks need to avoid violent crime,” Heller says. those skills. over the summer. “Which is very exciting, because if you look at the rigorous studies that are really Heller’s study, recently published in But the study was given an interesting convincing on how we reduce violence, we Science, examined One Summer Plus, a twist. Some of the students split their jobs don’t have very many answers.” summer-jobs program open to students in with a “social-emotional learning” cur- high-violence Chicago public high schools. riculum, along the lines of the Becoming The idea is that working a job, with the On average, the kids were 16 going on 17, a Man program. In essence, the study set aid of a mentor, imparts similar skills as a with a C average, and having missed 29 days up something of a competition, between a curriculum teaching self-control and conflict of school. Twenty-two percent had been straightforward summer-job program and resolution, for reasons that should be obvi- arrested. In short, not lost kids, but “on the one mixed with explicit instruction in life ous to anyone who’s held a job, or at least cusp,” to use Heller’s words. and emotional skills. managed to keep one.

They were put through a straightfor- And they both worked. Among the treat- “I heard a lot in talking to the program ward summer jobs program: students got ment group, violent-crime arrests fell by providers, and the employers, that even the paid minimum wage to work engaging 3.95 arrests per 100 youth, and the differ- jobs themselves are trying to develop some jobs—camp counselor, aldermanic assistant, ence between the two treatment groups was of those same skills that the social-emotional community-garden work—with the assis- almost nil. Plus the effects were strongest learning is doing,” Heller says. “Talking to tance of a job mentor. In other words, it’s not five to 11 months after the program ended, one of the employers, he told me that the just digging a hole to fill it back in. suggesting a lasting effect, at least in the biggest problem he has with young employ- medium-term—and that the results were not ees is how defensive they are. They show up, “Youth are smart,” Heller says. “They merely the result of keeping them off the they say ‘you have to wear closed-toes shoes know when you’re making work for them streets for a couple months. to work,’ and they snap at you, because just for the sake of doing work. And you they’re insulted, they don’t know how to must imagine that that’s a lot less rewarding, “The fact that those two versions of the take constructive criticism or separate that. and making you feel a lot less responsible program have about the same effect, sug- They feel very defensive about that.” and proud of what you’re doing, than if gests to me that there may be interchange- Defensiveness and the inability to step back from a conflict are hardly unique to kids in some of the city’s most dangerous neighborhoods. But the ramifications are much worse. “You could imagine that transferring over to not just interactions with employers, but also interactions with peers that would otherwise turn into throwing a punch,” Heller says.

One Summer Plus, however, had no effect on other types of crime: property crime, drug crime, and other arrests. The effects were limited to violent crime, an interesting result given how substantial the effects were on that category. But it makes sense in the context of social-emotional/cognitive education, which is focused on personal interactions.

“The bulk of that violent-crime category is assault,” Heller says. “Assault hap- pens, often, just because an argument over something stupid blows up. The fact that you see this effect on violent crime, but not things that don’t necessarily involve conflicts with people—breaking into a house, or carrying marijuana on you—that’s part of what informs my thought about the mechanisms about the program.”

With the cooperation of the city, Heller is continuing to delve into the mechanisms that make One Summer Plus work. She’s also studying CBT treatment in the realm of juvenile detention—kids farther over the cusp than the One Summer Plus group.

“I do hope that other cities will look at this as an example,” Heller says, “and do experiments of their own, to be able to answer exactly questions like that: how much does the type of job matter? How much does the job mentor matter? How much do the peers matter? There’s a lot of unanswered questions that I hope other cities will work to answer.”