Recession Hits Young Workers Hardest
As more and more New Yorkers are vaccinated and new sectors of the economy are able to reopen, we can begin to imagine life after the pandemic. But the pandemic's economic repercussions will continue to impact many workers, especially those who struggled to find rewarding work before the recession.
CWE and our partners have spent decades perfecting workforce development programs with these workers in mind. Community organizations and unions are training workers for in-demand jobs and supporting their career success. Putting the COVID-19 pandemic behind us will mean reinvesting in these programs that will allow all New Yorkers the opportunity to reenter the workforce. Please read on for more on the work by CWE and our partners to meet the needs of New York workers facing particularly high unemployment rates: young workers.
Chad Ingram was trained as a diesel mechanic through an apprenticeship administered by CWE and the Machinists Union.
The COVID-19 pandemic sparked the worst economic recession since the Great Depression, but as with the health impacts of the virus, some Americans have been hit harder than others. Young workers are facing higher rates of unemployment than other workers and will need additional job training and job placement support to enter, or reenter, the workforce.
According to a study from the Economic Policy Institute, unemployment among workers ages 16-24 increased to 24.4 percent in spring 2020, from under 10 percent the previous year. Recession unemployment rates for older workers rose to 11.3 percent.
Young workers of color were especially impacted by the economic crisis. Young Black workers faced 29.6 percent unemployment, while 27.5 percent of young Latino workers and 29.7 percent of young Asian workers were unemployed in the spring of 2020.
Even as the economy started to recover, young workers continued to face strong headwinds, and their unemployment rates remained double those of other workers.
The Consortium for Worker Education and our partners have long developed programs to support young workers reaching their career dreams, whether in strong economies or economic catastrophes.
After a Community Service Society report in 2003 identified New York City zip codes with crisis levels of unemployment, particularly among Black and Latino young men, CWE partnered with the City Council’s Black, Latino, and Asian Caucus to create the Jobs to Build On (JtBO) program to provide job training and placement services in target zip codes across the city.
The Edward J. Malloy Initiative for Construction Skills opens opportunities in the unionized building trades.
One program funded by Jobs to Build On that supports young workers is The Edward J. Malloy Initiative for Construction Skills (CSKILLS), a pre-apprenticeship program of the Building & Construction Trades Council of Greater New York that opens doors at building trades unions to public high school students and other residents, contributing to a more diverse workforce in the industry. Since its inception in 2001, CSKILLS has grown into a nationally-recognized model for addressing training and employment issues in the unionized construction industry.
Henry Street Settlement, another CWE partner, established the The Lower East Side Youth Opportunity Hub to support neighborhood residents between the ages of 13 and 24 with help finding a job, returning to school, and other programs.
CWE partner Opportunities for a Better Tomorrow offers job training for young workers in medical, technology, and construction industries. OBT’s success with young workers comes down to helping community members develop more than just technical skills.
“Soft skills – what we call essential skills – those are make or break for success in the workplace,” says OBT CEO Liliana Polo-McKenna. OBT is known for emphasizing these essential skills, which include learning how to problem solve to resolve conflicts or manage up. The organization also provides other support services – like mental health referrals, immigration services, and English classes – to ensure that other barriers do not prevent workers from succeeding on the job.
Graduates of Opportunities for a Better Tomorrow celebrate completion of their masonry program at Greenwood Cemetery in 2019. They program trains participants to safely restore stone structures at the historic Brooklyn institution. After graduating, they are ready to start careers in historic preservation. OBT is a partner in CWE's Jobs to Build On program.
In the South Bronx, even before the COVID recession, 23% of young residents were neither employed nor in school. Of those with jobs, half were working in low-pay industries with very limited opportunities to see economic growth. In 2016, CWE launched NYATLAS to create permanent career tracks for youth in the Bronx, beginning with a partnership with the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAM) to launch a new diesel engine mechanics apprenticeship program, the first of its kind in New York in thirty years. The diesel mechanics apprenticeship succeeded in training and placing Bronx youth into union careers with strong wages and benefits, and CWE has built on that success by developing Commercial Driver’s License and other training courses to connect young Bronx workers to in-demand professions.
These programs from CWE and our partners have supported young New Yorkers across the city in finding rewarding careers, and their individual stories show the impact.
When Dupreme Murphy graduated from high school, he thought he was set. He had returned to school because he wanted to get a decent job and stay out of trouble, but more than six months had gone by and he was still waiting for a job offer.
After three days of security training at Bedford Stuyvesant Restoration Corporation, he was placed into a job at Summit Security, providing security services around the city. “Restoration Corporation didn’t only help me get a job. They help me with life, period,” says Murphy.
Dupreme Murphy was trained and placed into a job providing security services by Bedford Stuyvesant Restoration Corporation
Patrick Guity credits SoBro, a partner in CWE’s Jobs to Build On program with helping him develop his work ethic and learn to manage a crisis, in life or on the job. After graduating from SoBro’s customer service and security guard training courses in 2016, he started work at a local firm and was soon promoted to supervisor.
Many of the people SoBro serves are young people with barriers. The organization assists them in developing a plan, with short-term goals, like completing the Jobs to Build On program, getting employment, and maintaining employment. But SoBro also takes a long-term approach, staying connected with clients after they graduate by offering advice and additional services, connecting them to new job leads, and following up on their plan to help them stay on track for goals.
The strength and breadth of the CWE network is an asset to all partner organizations, who can draw on the expertise and programs of other partners. For instance, when OBT graduate Sinad Wadsworth was interested in a career change, the organization was able to refer her to another JtBO partner, Nontraditional Employment for Women. She is now working in the unionized building trades.
Getting started in a career is always difficult, particularly for young workers from communities with high levels of unemployment. With the ongoing recession placing additional barriers in the way of young workers, the CWE network will be there with training and support to help them succeed in finding their dream career.