U.S. Cities Increase Number of Summer Jobs for Young Adults, but Demand Still Higher Than Supply, New JPMorgan Chase & Co. Report Reveals

More Cities Creating Skills-Based Summer Roles that Align with Future
Job Opportunities

NEW YORK–(BUSINESS WIRE)–JPMorgan Chase & Co. today released a report illustrating how a lack of
summer jobs is impacting youth unemployment and creating roadblocks to
economic mobility for many young people in the United States. Demand for
summer employment remains higher than the number of available job
opportunities, according to a new survey of 15 U.S. cities. Despite the
creation of more summer roles, only about 38 percent of teens and young
adults looking for summer jobs were able to find positions through 18
summer employment programs in the 15 cities surveyed over the last two
years.

These findings are part of a new report, Expanding
Economic Opportunity for Youth through Summer Jobs
, which
highlights the importance of summer employment opportunities for teens
and young adults and the benefits they provide, including workforce
readiness, skills development and higher graduation rates. JPMorgan
Chase has supported the development of several programs that equip young
people with education and training that aligns with the changing needs
of businesses. The report, which is based on a survey of Summer Youth
Employment Programs (SYEPs) that are supported by JPMorgan Chase, also
reveals that the summer employment rate for teens across the U.S. has
fallen to 34 percent, a near record low and a 20 percentage point drop
since 1995.

“Despite all of the challenges Summer Youth Employment Programs face,
we’re seeing a continued commitment from cities to provide young people
with greater access to economic opportunity,” said Chauncy Lennon,
Head of Workforce Initiatives, JPMorgan Chase
. “But we must make it
a national priority to close the gap between the demand and supply of
summer jobs.”

The Private Sector Increases its Role in Summer Employment

To increase the number of summer job opportunities, cities are taking
existing workforce and economic development strategies and discovering
innovative ways to meet their goals. As a result, new youth employment
initiatives were created in six of the cities that were surveyed.
Overall, seven city programs that were surveyed provided more summer
opportunities in 2015 than in the prior year.

To meet the growing demand for summer employment and provide diverse
work experiences, businesses are forming partnerships with summer jobs
programs to increase private sector youth opportunities; the number of
private sector worksites increased by 8 percent in 2015.

SYEPs are increasingly interested in expanding the number of
partnerships with private sector employers that recognize the benefits
for young adults entering the workforce. Detroit tops the list of
surveyed cities with the highest increase in the number of private
sector worksites offering summer youth employment, adding more than 100
partnerships in 2015. Other cities that reported the largest increases
are: Louisville (+66), Milwaukee (+22), St. Louis (+19), Dallas (+14)
and San Francisco (+12).

“I believe that talent is equally distributed, but what is not equally
distributed is opportunity,” said Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan. “We
have an enormous number of talented young people in Detroit who have not
had the same kinds of opportunities as people in other communities.
JPMorgan Chase’s report highlights the need to continue investing in our
young people and providing them opportunities through our summer job
programs like Grow Detroit’s Young Talent, which will employ 8,000 young
people this summer.”

“STL Youth Jobs is built on the knowledge that early work experience,
especially summer employment, can lead to greater economic opportunity,”
said St. Louis Mayor Francis Slay. “JPMorgan Chase shares our
commitment to investing in the future workforce of St. Louis, and this
report underscores the importance of creating more meaningful summer job
opportunities for our young people, particularly those living in our
most challenged neighborhoods.”

While youth funding by the U.S. Department of Labor has decreased by 33
percent since 2000, a variety of sources have increased public funding
for summer jobs by almost 10 percent between 2014 and 2015. The private
sector has increased funding for SYEPs in 2015 by a national average of
4 percent and JPMorgan Chase has committed nearly $6 million over the
last two years to support career-targeted opportunities for teens and
young adults through SYEPs. The summer jobs programs funded by JPMorgan
Chase in 2015 helped to provide over 3,200 youth jobs and work-related
opportunities.

Focus: Skills-Based Summer Jobs

Career skill development remains a priority for SYEPs as they continue
to create partnerships with the private sector. By 2025, 65 percent of
jobs in the U.S. will require some postsecondary education, training or
credential. Given these heightened expectations, summer work experience
and skills development enable young people to better compete for future
jobs.

Of the 18 programs surveyed, 13 programs expanded the skills-based,
career-specific or year-round opportunities for youth that can lead to
future career options. For example, almost half of the programs work
directly with Career and Technical Education (CTE) programs at local
school districts to connect summer work to career pathways. In addition,
public school districts are working alongside 11 summer jobs programs to
connect students to CTE programs.

Additionally, almost half of the SYEPs offer jobs or training connected
to specific sectors, such as technology, healthcare and the food and
beverage industry. As a result, young people with summer jobs in cities
such as Chicago, Louisville, Miami, New York City and St. Louis are
performing skills-based work.

Making Progress

While there has been strong growth among SYEPs, cities continue to
provide strategies and insights will continue to advance youth
employment and expand skill-based and career-specific employment and
training opportunities, including:

  • Expanding Private Sector Engagement: Cities and SYEPs must
    continue to expand partnerships with the private sector by
    strengthening operating and communications systems.
  • Building Capacity for Skills Development: Cities and SYEPs are
    making progress in linking summer jobs to technical skills building,
    training and education, and year-round employment.
  • Expanding Services for Special Youth Populations: Cities
    continue to prioritize serving special youth populations, including
    at-risk youth. While some progress has been made, especially
    increasing services for opportunity youth, most SYEPs do not actively
    recruit or provide targeted services for youth involved in the court
    or foster care system or youth with special needs. Programs are making
    headway expanding services to young men of color (30 percent of SYEP
    participants).
  • Connecting SYEPs to Local Workforce Systems: Cities are
    aligning summer jobs programs with local workforce systems through new
    partnerships and organizational structures.
  • Creating Financial
    Capability Programs
    : The incorporation of new
    interactive technologies, along with the knowledge of sound financial
    practices, will help to create economic security for these young
    employees.

About the Report

This JPMorgan Chase report is a qualitative analysis of summer youth
employment programs, representing a cross-section of models, within the
15 cities – Chicago, Dallas, Detroit, Jacksonville, Jersey City,
Louisville, Los Angeles, Miami, Milwaukee, New York City, Oakland,
Sacramento, San Francisco, Seattle and St. Louis – funded by JPMorgan
Chase in 2015. In conjunction with JPMorgan Chase’s partners, Patti
Everitt, Austin Community Foundation/Summer Jobs Partnership and Kisha
Bird, Center for Law and Social Policy (CLASP), the report draws from an
array of data gathered through in-depth surveys, individual interviews
with program directors, focus groups with participating youth and
interviews with employers, partner organizations and program staff.

About JPMorgan Chase & Co.

JPMorgan Chase & Co. (NYSE:JPM) is a leading global financial services
firm with assets of $2.4 trillion and operations worldwide. The Firm is
a leader in investment banking, financial services for consumers and
small businesses, commercial banking, financial transaction processing,
and asset management. A component of the Dow Jones Industrial Average,
JPMorgan Chase & Co. serves millions of consumers in the United States
and many of the world’s most prominent corporate, institutional and
government clients under its J.P. Morgan and Chase brands. The firm uses
its global resources, expertise, insights and scale to address some of
the most urgent challenges facing communities around the world including
the need for increased economic opportunity. Information about JPMorgan
Chase & Co. is available at www.jpmorganchase.com.

Contacts

Media:
JPMorgan Chase & Co.
Steve O’Halloran, 302-282-5699

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