Rep. Norton seeks to reduce Black youth unemployment
11th April 2016 · 0 Comments
By Stacy M. Brown
Contributing Writer
(Special from The Washington Informer) – The employment picture remains grim for teenagers and young adults and the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics revealed that youth unemployment is more than double the national unemployment rate, leading some like D.C. Rep. Eleanor Holmes Norton to seek solutions.
Norton has introduced a bill to help reduce the staggeringly high number of unemployed young Americans, which stands at 2.2 million, representing an unemployment rate of 10.5 percent.
The bill would expand AmeriCorps to allow unemployed young people who have completed college or high school to earn a stipend sufficient to support themselves and to gain valuable work experience.
Norton’s bill does not require any new or additional administrative structure or bureaucracy and, at the same time, the measure would allow states and localities access to personnel for badly needed services, such as after school and elderly programs, and would boost the economy.
“Expanding AmeriCorps has a triple benefit: employing young people who have been left out of the recovery since the Great Recession, boosting our economy and improving our communities through AmeriCorps’ mission of helping others through community service work,” Norton said in a news release.
“Young Americans who have worked hard to get their high school education and college degrees deserve better than competing for unpaid internships. They deserve the opportunity to earn a living to support themselves while serving their communities,” she said.
In February, Norton introduced an incentive-based bill to encourage businesses to hire the long-term unemployed by giving employers a $5,000 tax credit against their payroll tax liability for each new net person hired who has been unemployed for 27 weeks or longer.
“I rise today to introduce the Promoting National Service and Reducing Unemployment Act to address one of the greatest workforce tragedies resulting from today’s economy – our unemployed young people – and to spur economic growth and alleviate strain on state and local governments,” the longtime Congresswoman said.
“This tragedy is not only hurting our young people, it is costing our government $25 billion each year through lost tax revenue and other costs. Unemployment has reached a new low of 4.9 percent, but my bill targets the 2.2 million young people who have not had a fair chance to ever use their high school and college education, which this nation has strongly urged them to get,” she said.
What is particularly disappointing is the high unemployment rate for young people who heeded the advice to graduate from high school and college, only to try to enter the workforce in the worst economy in generations, Norton said.
The total unemployment rate is currently 10.6 percent for young adults ages 16 to 24 and hundreds of thousands now compete for unpaid internships wherever they can find them.
By significantly expanding AmeriCorps, the bill would need no new administrative structure or bureaucracy, and would allow unemployed young people to earn a stipend, obtain work experience and develop a good work history to help them secure future employment, she said.
The net cost of the expansion would be low, because participating young people would be providing urgently needed local services that are being dropped or curtailed because of federal, state, and local budget cuts, such as after-school programs, tutoring, and assistance for the elderly.
The bill would significantly expand job opportunities for young people who have played by the rules but despite their best efforts remain unemployed in this economy.
Participants would also receive a living allowance, be eligible for an education award equal to the value of a Pell grant, and be awarded school-loan forbearance, health care benefits and child care assistance.
Further, by expanding the AmeriCorps program, the number of unemployed young people would be reduced and they’d be provided with work skills and experience. It would also help cash-strapped states and local governments provide services that they would otherwise have to cut, Norton said.
“For some time, it has been clear that policies to address the most stubborn forms of unemployment need to be targeted in order to be effective. Without significant targeting, young graduates will continue to face their first years as adults without jobs and with no way to acquire work experience,” she said.
This article originally published in the April 11, 2016 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper.
