By Brian Sodoma
Barack Obama scooped ice cream at Baskin-Robbins. Suze Orman pumped fuel and DJ Calvin Harris gutted salmon. They’re among the celebrities who have given candid accounts of their first employment experiences and the lessons they learned on the job about work ethic, punctuality and responsibility.
A first job is a place to “practice behaving like adults and really learn those critical work readiness skills,” said Nancy Snyder, president of Commonwealth Corp., a Massachusetts-based nonprofit that creates workforce development programs. Such skills, she added, “are needed throughout your career.”
Finding that first job is a major challenge for today’s youth, however. In 2013, 16- to 24-year-olds made up 17 percent of the world population, but 40 percent of the world’s unemployed, according to the World Economic Forum.
In the United States, 17 percent of the people in this age group are considered “opportunity youth” — a term for those who are engaged in neither school nor work activities — according to Clive Belfield at Queens College, City University of New York. That’s 5.5 million people.
Here’s a look at the factors contributing to young adult unemployment, why it’s critical to reverse the trend and some of the partnerships working to help this population segment move forward. Efforts are in place not only to help America’s youth, but also to create a pool of emerging quality employees, which is good for all business and the economy.
The Need For Soft Skills
Employers are looking for young people with problem-solving, communication and teamwork skills along with a solid work ethic, according to Karen Pittman, president and founder of the Forum for Youth Investment, a national nonprofit that advises public officials on decisions that affect young people.
Too many youths aren’t learning these skills before employment, and could use a healthy dose of workplace exposure to acquire them.
“The school learning environment is not conducive to practicing those skills, and that’s why having that early employment experience is important,” Pittman said.
Paul Harrington, a professor at Drexel University’s Center for Labor Markets and Policy program, says employers want to see glimpses of these skills before they hire.
“The employer doesn’t know a lot about the applicant, and it’s hard to discern, so they look for cheap signals. Are they showing up with a friend for an interview? Do they have a Coke in their hand when they get an application? The problem is at 16, you don’t know [these behaviors are a problem],” Harrington said.
Learning these job skills early could also yield higher future earnings, according to Monique Rizer, executive director of Opportunity Nation, a coalition of more than 350 organizations dedicated to expanding economic mobility.
“Even long-term financial earnings are impacted by when you got that first job. If you haven’t had that first job by 20, you are way behind,” Rizer said.
The Challenge Of Marketing Yourself
Even those with job experience face the challenge of articulating to others that they possess these skills, Pittman has found.
“Nobody told them the things they were learning and practicing were important,” she said.
Online applications pose another barrier, because they require an attention to detail for which many youths haven’t necessarily been trained.
“They’re really personality tests. They are often quite lengthy and confusing. They might ask some questions five different ways,” Snyder said. “You should budget one-and-a-half hours or longer. You should take screen shots of how questions are answered because they’ll come up again, differently. And don’t do it on the phone.”
Making Change Happen
Experts agree that schools, nonprofits and employers need to work more closely to tackle opportunity youth unemployment, creating that much-needed win-win where opportunity youth gain valuable experience and employers find quality workers they can trust.
High school career and technical programs have proven to be successful in teaching basic skills such as dependability, work ethic, communication and teamwork strategies, and students who have passed through these programs tend to be sought after by employers.
Multiple efforts are underway that are designed to tackle the youth unemployment issue. Rizer champions projects such as 100,000 Opportunities, a coalition of roughly 40 employers and nonprofits. In Massachusetts, the state-funded YouthWorks program helped employ 4,400 teens in 31 cities across the state during the summer of 2016. Geared toward low-income youth, the program requires a minimum of 125 hours of participation — “enough experience to be able to practice those essential behaviors” in a job setting, according to Snyder.
Meanwhile, Gap Inc.’s This Way Ahead (TWA) program offers job skills workshops, paid internships and opportunities for teens and young adults from low-income communities to land those critical first jobs at Gap, Old Navy or Banana Republic stores. More than 2,600 participants have completed TWA since 2007, and 10,000 will participate by 2020. Gap Inc.’s long-term goal is to shift the company’s hiring model, creating a sustainable talent pipeline of teens and young adults. By 2025, 5 percent of entry-level new hires will come from TWA, which equates to approximately 5,000 employees per year.
On the educational front, schools such as New Technology High School, with locations all over the United States, stress responsibility, teamwork, communication and the ability to solve problems in their curricula.
Rizer’s team publishes an annual “Opportunity Index,” which evaluates state and county youth opportunities. With so many teen job efforts underway, she expects to see improvements in this year’s report, but acknowledges it’s a slow process.
“We know the unemployment rate has lowered for young adults — it’s headed in the right direction,” she said.
www.gapincsustainability.com/way-ahead
Brian Sodoma is a journalist who covers business and health. He lives in Southern Nevada.
