Jobs for the Young

...lor 9 1—in cities like Chicago, Baltimore and New York This suggests that expansion, rather than contraction, of the programs should be the present concern At the same time, though, several steps could be taken to make them still more effective To begin with, the practice of determining the job needs of an area should be instituted so that training can be properly focused Deeper involvement of the local business community in the design and execution of a program and most importantly in the hiring of its graduates would then also be Michael Bernick is an attorney Jor the Mexican-American Legal Defense and Educational Fund in San Francisco possible As good as the placement record has been, too often trainees end up frustrated because they belatedly find that there is no demand for their newly acquired talent There should be greater emphasis on literacy, too Many enrollees, both high school graduates and dropouts, read at fifth and sixth grade levels Teaching word processing or data entry to someone who cannot read or understand basic math is useless Moreover, the majority of urban employment opportunities today are in offices and reading ability is vital Not all youths who were unsuccessful in school are unreachable Striking proof of this is the growth of academic classes sponsored by community groups under ceta One such program is Project Excel, founded by the Youth for Service in San Francisco Excel operates training "cycles" lasting 15 weeks When the first cycle ended in the summer of 1979,22 of its 33 students received General Equivalency Diplomas (GEDs), after the second one, held last summer, 21 out of 30 earned the diploma The students progressed an average of two to four grade levels in reading and math Following completion of the course, they were able to find work as secretaries, bank tellers or account clerks, and some went on to junior college In the light of these encouraging results, cycles are now conducted year-round Programs like Project Excel deserve more support, but they cannot be expected to eliminate youth unemployment by themselves Heightened literacy and vocational trainingcan prepare people for work, but they cannot pro-videjobsforeverybody whowantsone This is another reason why c eta money has not substantially ieduced unemployment among 16-19-ycar-olds Thus, cieating new jobs should be a third step in improving anti-unemplo\-menl strategy It is the most ditlicult one, ol com sc, in a penod preoccupied with cm bmg inflation And the policies I hut the Reagan Acliinnislialion sees as generating lobs—a sharp jeduUion in business taxes, a diop in the minimum wage loi young people, and the Kemp-G.itcia Hi ban lobs and Cnteipnsc Zones Act—are of questionable value A large tax cut for business, besides risking higher inflation, would not distinguish between capital-intensive and labor-intensive industries, between jobs for professionals or technicians and those for the less-skilled, or between low and high unemployment regions Reducing the youth minimum wage would at best probably have a minimal impact A study by economist James Ragan, for instance, has found that without any minimum wage, black youth unemployment in 1972 would have been 30 5percent,insteadof33 5percent—a drop of only three percentage points Kemp-Garcia seeks to create jobs specifically in depressed inner-city neighborhoods It would designate those areas as Enterprise Zones, based on unemployment and poverty data, and provide financial incentives to attract businesses to them The bill proposes a property tax cut of at least 20 per cent, a capital gains tax cut of 50 per cent, a Social Security tax cut of 50 per cent for workers over 21 years of age, and 90 per cent for workers under 21, and a depreciation allowance over three years for the first $500,000 of assets At least half of a company's employees would have to come from the Enterprise Zone Now being considered in Congress, Kemp-Garcia has been endorsed by the President and has won the plaudits of the Wall Street Journal and newspapers throughout the Northeast Economists have been less sanguine A study by George Steinheb of Rutgers University indicates that the tax incentives would induce some businesses to expand and others to relocate in these areas, but that in most cases, the benefits would not suttice to outweigh the disincentives ol crime, high land cost and population density Steinheb lur-thei points out that the depreciation allow ancc and capital gains tax cut—tw o gcncious bonuses—may appeal mainlv to high technology indtistiies which ollei tewci lobs Michael kicschnickot thcCalitoinia State Oiliee- ol Leonomie Policy docs not believe the \et would dramatically stem the flow of companies out of urban centers and out of the Northeast He thinks its mam effect might be to prompt some businesses that were planning to stay put to move into Enterprise Zones within their own cities Neither Kieschntck nor Steinheb oppose giving Kemp-Garcia a try, especially since it is the only urban policy backed by Reagan They simply do not view it as a solution to the shortage of jobs in metropolitan areas It remains, in other words, easier to identify the shortage than to deal with it For all the Democratic talk of a full-employment budget, it must be said, few specifics of such a budget have e\ er been set forth The Humphrey-Hawkins Act mentions countercyclical public works and public service employment targeted to regions, and the linking of job priorities to economic development schemes, but neglects to explain how these policies are to be implemented Previous large increases in ceta positions had been plagued by problems of substitution of ceta-funded temporary workers for regular employees, opposition from construction unions, and excessive supervisory costs Last January, the President's Commission for a National Agenda tor the Eighties, sponsored by Carter, outlined a proposal for relocation and retraining assistance that would encourage migration to the economically thriving Sun Belt This has attracted some support, given the higher energy costs and unemployment in the Northeast \ ct, again, details in regard to the expenditure that would be necessary the mechanics ot movement and its effects on Northeastern cities are inadequate Consequently, at least w here rndrv ld-ual unskilled voung people searching tor work are concerned, the ceta training programs aic the best thing going That thex have noi nude an appreciable dent in aggregate voulh unemplov-menl is undeniable But neither vouth nor adult unemplov ment on the national lev ci will \iclci loan \ thing less than an economic poliev capable ol pioelucing more jobs wink simultaneously icduc-mg inflation So lai that is not on the hou/oii...

...GIVING CETA ITS DUE Jobs for the BY MICHAEL BERNICK As the Reagan Administration continues its Capitol Hill offensive on behalf of its economic package, youth unemployment stands at the critical level of 19 3 per cent Among minorities the figures are even higher?5 per cent for blacks and over 24 per cent for Hispanics The problem confronted the Carter Administration as well, of course, and the truth is that not much progress was made toward solving it The number of jobless youths in the country has never dropped below 16 per cent in recent years, although more than $1 billion was spent annually on Comprehensive Employment and Training Act (ceta) programs for people aged 16-19 One might reasonably conclude, therefore, that this facet of ceta is clearly an example of government waste and should be a pnme candidate for extinction, or at least severe curtailment Indeed, that is apparently the view of President Reagan's advisers, who would lump together ceta's youth and adult programs while cutting $670 million from their combined $4 3 billion projected budget for fiscal 1982 Actually, it would beleftto the cities and states to decide how their share of thereduced Federal funds is to be allocated, but the widespread presumption is that services for young people would bear the brunt of the belt-tightening The-irony is that despite outward appearances, a close examination of individual ceta undertakings on behalf of hard core unemployed youths reveals them to be quite successful Generally run by community colleges or city agencies, they provide instruction in such skills as business machine repair, drafting, secretarial work, word processing, and reprographics Studies done by the National Commission for Employment Policy in Washington show that 60-65 percentofthe participants are placed in jobs, with the better programs experiencing a 75-80 per cent placement rate A major reason why these training centers have nevertheless had little impact on the national youth unemployment picture is that they reach proportionately few people In San Francisco, for example, there are only about 800 spaces for the 4,000-5,000 youths who need vocational training The ratio is higher...