SR0923 95TH GENERAL ASSEMBLY

SR0923 LRB095 23020 DRJ 53517 r

SENATE RESOLUTION

WHEREAS, The U.S. economy is experiencing the worst slow-down in the past 30 years and is facing a severe recession; and

WHEREAS, The U.S. economy has shed more than 1 million payroll jobs in the 10 months of 2008 and now has on average 2.8 million more unemployed persons than one year ago; and

WHEREAS, At 33%, this was the worst summer teen (16 to 19) employment rate in post-World War II history, and this national employment crisis is crippling the teen job market, with Black and Latino youth the hardest-hit groups; and

WHEREAS, In the summer of 2008, more than 2 million low-income youth were out of work and on the streets; and

WHEREAS, In October 2008, 68% of teens were jobless and there were 500,000 fewer teens employed than in October 2007, and the nation's teen employment rate fell by three percentage points over the past 12 months; and

WHEREAS, Youth, particularly Black and Hispanic, are living in a "Depression" with very high jobless rates - 77% of Black youth and 69% of Hispanic youth across the country; and

WHEREAS, President Bush, President-elect Obama, and the Congress are now proposing a very large stimulus to restart the U.S. economy; and

WHEREAS, From 1964 until 2000, there was a separate summer youth employment program for over 750,000 low-income youth, and these jobs were often the first jobs for low-income youth, giving them a chance to work and gain experience to later find a job on their own; and

WHEREAS, The summer youth employment program was eliminated when the youth employment and training program was revamped in 2000; and

WHEREAS, Teen employment has a variety of long-term benefits for youth as well as the short-term improvement in their earnings and income; the more teens work when they are 16 and 17, the more likely they are to work when they are 18 and 19, and then they are more likely to work when they are 20 and 21; teen employment raises earnings of youth when they reach 25; and

WHEREAS, Teens who work are more likely to get trained by their employers via formal apprenticeship training, and low-income youth who work more in high school, especially males, are less likely to drop out of high school, and female teens who work more are less likely to get pregnant; and

WHEREAS, Illinois has demonstrated this past summer how to quickly and successfully implement a broad-based summer youth employment program that employed nearly 10,000 youth across the State; therefore, be it

RESOLVED, BY THE SENATE OF THE NINETY-FIFTH GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, that the Illinois State Senate urges President Bush, President-elect Obama, and the Congress to allocate $2 billion of the next proposed economic stimulus to create an employment program throughout the year, and with a particular emphasis on the summer, for 1 million youth (13 to 21 years old), combining education and productive work in their neighborhoods; teens would earn money while they are producing meaningful work, and they will spend this money immediately providing a direct economic stimulus to the U.S. economy; and be it further

RESOLVED, That suitable copies of this resolution be delivered to President Bush, President-elect Obama, and each member of the Illinois Congressional delegation.