New study shows unemployment rates for Black youth have not recovered since the pandemic

When Taniya Howell started high school, her mother was incarcerated and her father worked a lot. She roamed the streets, engaged in fights and was kicked out of school.

“It took a lot for me to get where I am here today, but I made it through,” said Howell, 21, now a senior at West Town Academy. “Being employed, it helped tremendously.”

Howell spoke out about the importance of jobs for youth with other high schoolers Thursday in front of the Thompson Center, where they called on state senators to support legislation that would provide $300 million toward youth employment programs. They were joined by Ald. Michael Rodriguez, 22nd, and Jack Wuest, executive director at Alternative Schools Network.

The group spoke out after a new report commissioned by the Alternative Schools Network and conducted by the Great Cities Institute at University of Illinois at Chicago shows that jobless rates for Black youth have not recovered since the pandemic.

Unemployment rates for Black 20- to 24-year-old females in Chicago was especially dire, with rates nearly doubling from 2019 to 2021, according to Matt Wilson, author of the report, “Youth and Young Adults Moving Backwards Not Forward: Uneven and Missing Recoveries in Youth Employment from the COVID-19 Pandemic.”

“Younger populations always have a higher unemployment rate than older populations. But we were surprised to see that during 2021 when the economy was getting better, things were getting worse for some people — particularly Black women and Latino men — while the economy was getting better for everyone else,” Wilson told the Tribune in an interview this week.

According to the study, there were 439,209 jobless 16- to 19-year-olds in Illinois and 92,511 in Chicago in 2021. Black unemployment rates for 20- to 24-year-olds in Chicago increased from 2019 and 2020, while white and Hispanic or Latino unemployment rates decreased during the same time period, the report said.

Wuest said the pandemic created a “cauldron of frustration and anger” for young people. Wuest started a charter school network in 1998 that now enrolls over 3,000 young people in 18 schools around the city.

“The isolation the kids have felt and the trauma from that isolation has left a lot of kids still on the streets more than had been on before,” he said.

At the Thompson Center, a black cardboard coffin lay in front of the small group to symbolize lives lost to gun violence in Chicago.

Howell said that at a time when she had little else to do, without guidance and mentorship, being employed through Alternative Schools Network summer youth employment programs saved her. She said it allowed her to meet new people, boosted her self esteem and gave her a sense of purpose and identity.

Today, she is president of her student council, and will graduate in three weeks.

“It’s important for me as a Black youth. It’s important to us to get the opportunity to advocate for us,” Howell said. “It’s coming from us. It’s happening in our neighborhoods.”

Several pieces of legislation have been introduced in Springfield to award grants to nonprofit entities to train young adults for private and public sector jobs during the school year and summer. It’s unclear how far any of the bills will go during the current session, which is scheduled to end next week, but one of the sponsors, former Chicago mayoral candidate state Rep. Kambium “Kam” Buckner said the effort could bring long-term benefits not just to Chicago but across the state.

”We’re talking about 80,000 jobs for low income youth around the state of Illinois, not just in the city of Chicago, but around the entire state, each of the 102 counties,” Buckner told the Tribune in a phone interview.

The city already plans to offer 650 job openings for young people and the state will offer 160, but those figures need to be in the thousands, said Wuest. He is pushing for state and national commitment, but said job programs should be implemented by local groups who know youth.

“People say providing thousands of jobs is too costly, but it’s too costly when people are afraid to walk outside their own front door,” Wuest said.

Joblessness and school dropout rates are connected, said Wuest. His smaller schools provide kids with close mentor relationships to help them work through trauma. Kids are supported through after-school activities, sports and prom.

Angela Gibson, principal at West Town Academy, said her students were missing school to speak out at the news conference. They are involved in the Greater West Town Community Development Project, a community-based organization that provides educational and economic opportunities for Humboldt Park, North Lawndale, Garfield Park, and Austin.

“This is the work we envision our students doing. Coming into the community, advocating for the community. Doing what’s needed for them,” Gibson said. “Identifying what they need and speaking up.”

Maria Feliciano said she dropped out of school to work full time at a thrift store. After a few months of working, something clicked for her. She realized if she didn’t get back into the classroom, she would be stuck.

She enrolled at the alternative school, where she connected with After School Matters. For a while, she worked at a greenhouse tending to plants. Then she partnered with Critical Health Network, where she was able to go to the anatomy lab at Rush University Medical Center. She wants to be a mortician, she said.

“I get to save checks and go to school,” said Feliciano, now an 18-year-old at Pedro Albizu Campos High School. “I spend my money on clothes, food, shampoo. I even paid for my root canal.”

nsalzman@chicagotribune.com