In a compressed labor market where there are more workers than the number of job openings, adults who have been out of the workforce for several years are more likely to get hired over an urban youth who has no high school diploma or real job experience.
In Bridgeport alone that labor market is greatly squeezed with the percentage of unemployed youth more than doubling that of the county and state averages, according to a recent report released by the Bridgeport Child Advocacy Coalition.
In 2012, the unemployment rate for job-seeking Bridgeport youths age 16-19 was 53.4 percent compared with 22.5 percent in Fairfield and 24.4 percent statewide, the State of the Child in Bridgeport 2013 reported showed.
Last October, Bridgeport”™s unemployment rate was nearly double that of the statewide unemployment rate of 7.5 percent.
The reality is a competitive job market tends to push out job-seeking youth who come from predominantly urban settings such as Bridgeport. The barrier is created by one”™s education level, said Joe Carbone, president and CEO of The Workplace Inc., a Bridgeport-based workforce development service provider that serves the unemployed.
“In the new post-recession economy, you are judged by what you bring in terms of value added to the employers,” Carbone said. “You will not get a chance to compete even if you have the natural ability and knowledge if you don”™t have the basic educational credentials. It”™s never been more important than it is right now that kids understand dropping out of school will cost you a life of economic growth that will bring you into the middle class.”
The degree of poverty in urban centers is far greater in Bridgeport than the rest of the state, which makes it difficult for children to maintain a steady education, Carbone said. He added that the dropout rates are much higher in Bridgeport than the rest of the state.
“Children are not getting the support level they need from their parents and there”™s not a lot of accessibility to materials so children can do better in school,” Carbone said.
The short-term solution to help employ the urban youth who have dropped out of school is to create summer jobs and give employers an incentive to hire these youth.
The Workplace provides two initiatives to train the youth for employment. Youthworks, a year-round program that targets ages 17-21 who come from low-income families, offers skill training and job search assistance. As one of five regional workforce investment boards in the state, The Workplace serves 20 towns from Greenwich to Bridgeport and up the Naugatuck River Valley toward Oxford.
Last year, The Workplace”™s summer youth program provided about 380 youths with jobs for seven weeks; 25 had disabilities. But with limited funding, The Workplace had to turn away 1,400 kids from the region, said Tom Long, vice president of communications and development at The Workplace.
Summer jobs are also available through the city, where a community block grant allowed Bridgeport Mayor Bill Finch to create a 10-week job program training youths to bring conservation messages to residents.
“They go door to door educating people about how to adopt trees, how to get a free rain barrel to divert storm water, how to get a free energy audit and how to recycle,” Finch said. “This is one of the major initiatives of the city to train the youth and get them out there. It”™s killing two birds with one stone: getting students to help move policy initiatives forward and at the same time they”™re getting job training.”
Finch said despite the dwindling number of summer job opportunities, Bridgeport has taken major steps to improve its education system.
“We”™re doing a better job of keeping kids in school,” Finch said. “But when they graduate they still need to have higher level of education than they are getting now.”
Bridgeport has created a call to action to improve the quality of education by building three new Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) high schools that teach job-readiness skills in information technology, zoology and science and aerospace.
The latest plan is an $80 million project to build a new health magnet high school on a 14-acre property donated by General Electric. The idea is for the school to partner with two of Bridgeport”™s hospitals to provide students with job training relevant to the health industry. Funding is in place to build the new Harding High School and will include labs and training facilities. The city awaits approval from the board of education, Finch said.
