Youth Unemployment-A Tale of Two Ghettos

• Published in: The Public interest 1969-01, Vol.17 (17), p.78-78
• Main Author: Harwood, Edwin
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Ghettos; Indexing in process; Job/Jobs; Negro/Negroes; Poverty; Unemployed/Unemployment; Youth; Youth/Youths/Youthful
• ISSN: 0033-3557

The unemployment of teenage low-income youth is examined. 2 field studies using non-participant observation & informal interview techniques were conducted in Chicago with white poverty youths in 1965 & in Houston with white & Negro poverty youths in the Neighborhood Youth Corps (NYC) in 1967-68. It was found that many M youths are voluntarily underemployed because they place a premium on streetcorner sociability. Higher rates of youth joblessness relative to other groups are thus partly a consequence of living in an affluent society. Once youths marry, they are constrained to take a full-time job, however. It was also noted that the NYC served new functions not intended by policymakers in gov. With the expansion of job opportunities due to the tight labor market in the 1960's, poverty youths could find ample unskilled jobs in many US cities. To attract youths, the NYC had to offer better jobs than were available to unskilled, low-income youths in the private sector. Thus semi-skilled white-collar jobs for girls who tended to enroll in much higher proportions than boys in cities like Houston came to be preferred by NYC counselors over jobs offering simple make work or work experience. The guiding ethos of the NYC became upward econ mobility rather than simple work experience. AA.