CEOs promise all-in commitment to cut youth unemployment

Aamer Madhani | USA TODAY

CHICAGO — Kweli Garbutt, 17, has big plans to be a forensic pathologist.

But for now, the high school senior from one of the city’s tougher neighborhoods would just like to get her foot in the door at a Starbucks or Chipotle.

“I feel like that when people hear I’m from the southeast side it’s a barrier,” Garbutt said.. “I don’t know, but I think when people hear where I am from they think I’m going to act out or something.”

Garbutt was among the roughly 4,000 young people taking part on Thursday in the first job fair of the 100,000 Opportunities Initiative, a coalition of 29 major companies that have pledged to make a dent into the problem of youth unemployment that disproportionately affects minority communities.

The project, which is being spearheaded by Starbucks, was launched earlier this summer as the company’s CEO Howard Schultz pushed the company to make social responsibility a core part of the company’s identity. Roughly 5.5 million Americans ages 16 to 24, who are referred to as “disconnected youth,” are neither working nor are in school. The demographic is disproportionately African-American and Latino.

Companies in the coalition, which has pledged to hire 100,000 disconnected youth over the next three years, hired hundreds on the spot during Thursday’s job fair. Many of the executives also sat down with young participants, who told the company chiefs about the complications they are facing as they try to break into the workforce.

Schultz, whose grew up in a housing project in New York before winning a football scholarship to attend college, told a small group of young participants that he is concerned that while there is plenty of rhetoric from American politicians about creating pathways to American middle class he questions if the American dream is as alive today as it was for his generation.

“This is very personal for me,” Schultz said. “I think we have to make a comprehensive all-in commitment…that the country we love, the promise of America, (and) the American dream has to be alive in the future as it was as I was coming through Brooklyn, New York in those projects.”

African-American and Latino youth have significantly lower participation in the workforce than young whites and Asians. In Chicago, which was picked to host the inaugural and has more than 200,000 disconnected youth, African-American teens are employed at a 10.5% rate, Latinos at 21%, while 30% of the city’s white youngsters are employed.

Teen employment is a strong predictor of future success in life. They tend to have higher earning potential over the course of their careers than those didn’t that get jobs as teens and are more likely to enroll and graduate from college. Taxpayers spent roughly $26.8 billion in 2013 on incarceration, Medicaid, public assistance and Supplemental Security Income payments associated with disconnected youth, according to the Social Science Research Council.

Some executives that participated in Thursday’s job fair said there was also a pragmatic aspect for their engagement.

Matt Ehrlichman, the CEO of Porch.com, which helps guide customers to home-improvement professionals, said there is growing demand for skilled and semi-skilled tradesman.

“What’s been very clear as Porch has grown as fast as we have is that we are going to need more trades people,” Ehrlichman said. “I am just trying to think ahead to how we are going to be doing that. One of the clear ways is bridge that gap of people who are looking for opportunities and getting those people in as apprentices and starting positions.”

Taco Bell CEO Brian Niccol noted that his company, which has a strong suburban foothold, is increasingly focusing on opening stores in urban areas. More than 55% of the chain’s workforce is between 16 and 24, and Taco Bell projects it will hire have to hire 1.5 million workers in the coming years to keep up with growth.

“This is a rich opportunity for companies like ours as well,”Niccol said.

Kristopher Williams, 20, who was among a small group of participants to meet with Schultz and the artist Common, politely but firmly told the Starbucks chief that he hoped that the CEOs would remain committed to the issue.

“I hope you won’t let this be a one-time deal,” said Williams, who has struggled to find work. “I hope it just won’t be just a photo op.”