Hidden Jobs and Why Workforce System Participants Can’t Find Them

By Edward DeJesus

The nation’s workforce development and social service systems are ill equipped to address the unemployment crisis in the United States.  Their efforts consistently fall flat because too much attention has been placed on short sighted workforce development strategies and practices.  By focusing attention and funding on programs that simply provide skills training and work readiness preparation; they fail to address a critical component that millions of jobseekers need just as much, if not more.  Research indicates that up to 85% of available jobs are not listed in the newspapers or on-line.  These employment opportunities exist in what economist call “the hidden labor market.” For in the hidden labor market, success is achieved by not only about what you know, or who you know; it’s more about who knows you and likes you.

This unspoken reality holds true in the realm of education. The parent who is waiting for the overworked high school counselor to provide their child with information will be waiting a long time. With caseload of up to 500 to 1, high school careers counselors don’t have the time, not to mention the training or access to information, to help student uncover the myriad of educational scholarships and training opportunities available.  Educational opportunity is also based on being in the know, and surrounded by people who know, too.

If the unemployment problem is to be effectively addressed, jobseekers must receive assistance in the area of establishing and cultivating opportunity networks, and then drawing from the resources that these networks provide. Without sustained access to these “opportunity networks”, a major part of the workforce development equation is missing.

An informal survey of program directors for youth summer jobs across the country revealed a glaring problem when it comes to providing youth the proper tools to build opportunity networks and the skills to sustain them.  When asked how many students sent thank you letters to their summer work supervisors or were even prompted to do so, an overwhelming majority answered “none.”

This example is indicative of a workforce system still deeply entrenched in old school workforce development strategies that honestly, have never met any high degree of success.  By staunchly sticking with old school methodologies simply because they exist is a testament to the lack of resolve and commitment among our nation’s policymakers and funding communities to change the nature of opportunity for low-income Americans.

Taking this disservice to jobseekers as a personal challenge, I developed a new program strategy: “Opportuneurship.”  Opportuneurship is a system wide set of principles and practices that gives jobseekers the tools, skills and opportunities to access the hidden employment and educational networks. Opportuneurship is not entrepreneurship. While a very small percentage of job seekers become entrepreneurs,  they all must become opportuneurs -  their future labor market success depends on it.

By equipping jobseekers with the tools that open the gateway to the 85% of jobs that are never advertised in the newspapers, their success percentage increases by significant levels.

The fact that the majority of unemployed are from low income communities only means they are from areas where the majority of people are unemployed and or underemployed.  In such an environment, how is one to ascertain good labor market information, especially when everyone else is in the same boat?  Though we’ve all heard of the “good ol’ boy” network, mainstream society refuses to openly acknowledge its existence, often promoting the façade of equal opportunity employment in public, while opening back room doors for their chosen candidates. This hidden labor market snatches employment opportunities away from low income job seekers that most times they were never even made aware of in the first place. The existence of this exclusionary network forces these poor job seekers to fend for themselves in an already diminished job pool.

What this workforce system needs is an infusion of resources that will allow local workforce boards and community based programs to build strong connections between jobseekers and the opportunities that so elusively remain hidden in the backroom good ol’ boy networks and associations. It requires a system with the willingness to invest in not only preparing people for jobs, but one that will give them access to the highway of information that allows them to drive their own futures, taking any off-ramp they choose.

In the current state of the job market only a select few are aware of these necessary strategies and are taking advantage of them. This gross oversight is one of the major reasons that the employment outlook seems so bleak to many jobseekers. A review of the national work readiness credential showed that there have been no measurements taken to determine the degree to which networking and helping participants sustain that network is essential to labor market success.  The fact that the concept of Opportuneurship is an overlooked and underfunded strategy while major corporations utilize networking on a daily basis, places a spotlight on this broken system that can no longer be ignored. I challenge the leaders of the nation’s workforce system and the policymakers that created it, to look beyond traditional approaches and immediately incorporate Opportuneurship as an essential program component.  We must demand the incorporation of Opportuneurship programs and strategies if our youth and dislocated jobseekers are to have a fighting chance.

It is pointless to profess concern and perpetrate vigorous strides towards resolving unemployment when the critical vehicles necessary to propel jobseekers onto the path of success is being omitted from the programs funded to help them. Why would a jobseeker take their time and energy to complete a program where the end result will not put them in any better of a position than when they started?   What we don’t do for people tells them more about us than what we do for them.  Subjecting millions of low-income job seekers to antiquated methods is doing nothing but showing how much you don’t care.

Edward DeJesus is a national expert of workforce and youth development. Reprint of article allowed as long as author is properly referenced. For more information on Opportuneurship or to get involved with the Opportuneurship Movement, please visit www.edwarddejesus.com or e-mail: edscinfo@gmail.com

Three Jobs that Obama Needs to Create to Put Youth to Work, Improve the Effectiveness of the Youth Service System, and Reduce Government Waste on Ineffective Programs

Are the majority of participants in our nation’s employment and training system finding themselves in high wage/high growth jobs? Or are they finding themselves working where they used to work or not working at all? Despite the best efforts of our nation’s job training system, many youth simply find themselves still entangled in the youth labor market—a place characterized by low pay, no benefits, demanding schedules and job requirements that bite significantly into their paltry wages.

“The Forgotten Half—Non-College Bound Youth in America,” a national report on the status of youth employment in our country, states that many large corporations don’t hire youth for career level jobs, even at the entry level position. In fact, studies point out that employers these days are reluctant to hire native born youth, under the age of 25, and who reside within the local community for even the most basic of employment – the fast food position.

In many of my presentations I ask employment and training providers, “are we getting them started just to get them stuck.” Given this chilling bit of reality, it is time for policy makers to explore new ideas on how to reduce the 40% youth unemployment rate among our nation’s high school drop-outs.

While many policy makers still think all they need to do is solve the skills mismatch crisis – just give the youth the skills needed by business and they will get employed –  the opportunity to engage and purposefully employ today’s youth is slipping through the cracks. Rather than thinking outside the box, our political representatives are missing the mark and it’s time to change gears and focus to a new and integrated way of operating.

Would you believe that your youth workforce system is a pathway to opportunity if you were a youth who saw the majority of their peers coming out of the system unemployed or underemployed?

Of course not!

Issues of racism, discrimination, and the failure of the school system are subjects that the workforce development community does not like to talk about.  Although the President’s intent to inspire when telling our drop-outs that when they drop-out of school, they are dropping out on their country. The truth is we dropped the ball on these youth a long time ago.

It is time to put youth to work and stop hoping that the already decimated business community is going to rush to employ those with so many barriers to future economic success. Let’s start by creating a reason for youth to invest in, subscribe to, and complete our programs. Let’s offer guaranteed transitional jobs to all of our program graduates. Give our youth the opportunity to serve us with the skills that we have deemed imperative for them to acquire. Reward them by leveling the playing field and allowing them to take their place on that field rather than watching idly from the sidelines.

Let’s stop asking how do we serve youth and let them serve us where they are needed most – in the communities where they live and play.  An important characteristic for success in working with youth is the ability to communicate. Youth workers must know the language, attitudes and disposition of the target population. These qualities are best obtained if a percentage of youth workers are themselves a part of the local community. We must at all costs connect our youth to opportunities that reach beyond hanging in the streets and afford them the chance to be productive and meaningful contributors to our society.

Here are some recommendations for immediate youth job creations program.

Youth Outreach and Orientation Departments

Every federally funded social service organization should be mandated and funded to institute and support a department of Youth Outreach and Orientation. Here local youth can be trained and employed to address the insidious actions, behaviors and beliefs that misdirect the energy of millions of youth in low-income communities.

Utilizing youth in these departments can be an essential force in reaching at-risk youth at times and places when most educators won’t. They can help get the word out to high risk youth about the availability of education, workforce and social services, as well as correct much of the bad information that currently exists about these services.

Youth Educational Ambassadors

Given the number of youth who are not reading at grade level, we need to stop the idealistic thinking that schools are going to reach them.  I remember trying to recruit one at-risk young man, who told me, “I went to public schools and they kicked me out. The public transportation system doesn’t want to stop on my block. The Public defender is jerking me. So, what makes you think I’m all excited to be in your publicly funded program?”

That is the reality we are dealing with, and it’s time for our government to “wake up and smell the coffee.” We need to get innovative programs to the youth, reach out where they live, in their neighborhoods; on their stoops, and in their living rooms. Youth Educational Ambassadors are the key. By using youth trained to help those reading four or five grades levels below them we can implement a culturally competent curriculum that will effectively connect to those at-risk youth in a way that we have only wished for. What’s more, the effective use of youth to reach others is the best possible promotion a program could hope for.

Youth Program and Policy Improvement Committees.

Many of the nation’s youth educational service programs are on life support and young people are pulling the plug.  To help improve the relevance of youth services to the young people they serve establish youth representation in human services organizations, school boards, and policy organizations.  The key benefit is the utilization of youth popular culture to draw others to the organizations by making them look more youth friendly. Additionally, soliciting youth input in the staff hiring process and evaluation of services ensures a much more effectively run program as it speaks directly to the needs of the youth that will be served.

High wage/high growth jobs are obtainable, just maybe not all in the private sector. Let’s invest in our youth to lead us into a brighter today and a more promising tomorrow.

A Letter of Apology to My Checkout Girl

Dear Rosemary:

The world is full of folks that mind their own business and don’t get involved, but I’m not one of them. I’m also not one of those folks who would rather run my own items over the scanner and listen to a machine drone the prices while I bag it myself. Forgive me, but I’m a little partial to a warm smile and the occasional chit-chat about how your day has been, or the way you scan slower to give me more time when I run out of line to get the milk I forgot.

Please understand that I wasn’t trying to be rude or disrespectful when I jumped into your line instead of hurrying through one of the eight automated check-out machines. It’s just that there was no one waiting in your line and I’ll always choose a friendly face over some machine that’s designed to take your place. It may seem a little strange, particularly in an age where everyone wants things to be bigger, better, and faster. But what happens when the machines take over? I don’t want to know and I refuse to be one of those folks who supports technology over hospitality. After all, I happen to like the fact that you’ve been checking me out for the last five years (excuse the pun), and I’ve gotten used to seeing you twice a week.

So please don’t get mad at me when you see sneak pass those checkout terminators and into your lonely line. I just like your style. I like the fact that you know me and don’t bust me out when I buy that Snickers that I know I don’t need. You know, the way others do, when they ask if I want it in the bag? You don’t put me on blast like that; instead you slide it over the counter so I can get my junk food fix. There’s not a machine in the world that could be a better partner in crime, so please understand that I’m doing all I can to make sure they keep you and not the machine.
You’ll always be my checkout girl.

Ed

Questions for discussion?
1.What point is the author trying to make?
2.What has been the impact of technology on jobs in your community?
3.List five jobs that are no longer around because of changes in technology.
4.Write a letter back to the author from the perspective of Rosemary, the checkout lady.
5.How many people in your community may lose their jobs because of technology? What can be done, or is being done, to address this issue?

Copyright holder is licensing this under the Creative Commons License, Attribution 3.0.

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

Please feel free to post this on your blog or email it to whomever you believe would benefit from reading it. Thank you.
Reprint rights of this entire work are granted under the following conditions:
1. Please forward the location & nature of the reprint to edward dejesus. info@ydrf.com
2. If using electronic media, provide a direct link to the download (if applicable) or first page of this article.
3. The following byline must be used if this work is reprinted in its entirety.
Edward DeJesus—President and Founder, Youth Development and Research Fund. Author and national speaker/expert on youth development and employment. Visit him online at http://www.ydrf.com or http://www.edwarddejesus.com.

Don’t Let Change Stop On Nov. 4 – Create Jobs for Youth

 

America needs change. We’ve all known this for years, and we finally have a President Elect who shares the vision of a better America. The change campaign swept through this country, prompting millions of youth to take make their voices heard at the polling place, emphatically declaring that the time is now. However it’s one thing to talk about change, we must also be about it. Now that we have the power to effect change, what will we do with it? The time to roll up our sleeves is upon us and we all need to get busy. With an economy that is plunging daily, we must now examine the roots of this problem and devise a plan that effectively and inclusively involves all Americans in restoring our country and spreading the wealth equitably.

 

Presently, the employment rate is at rock bottom. Layoffs abound, and the unspoken last hired, first fired rule is in effect. At the same time, drop-outs rates are escalating, community college completion rates worsen and many youth workers who find themselves competing with college educated adults for a minimum wage job that will barely keep gas in their cars. Despite these facts, we’ve always known that large companies don’t hire those under age 25 for career level positions, not even at the entry level.

 

When the current outlook is so bleak, is it any wonder that youth are wondering why they should strive to enter the workforce or complete their education?

The recent election created a movement within the youth community that encouraged them to act, that convinced them that they matter, that change could occur. In fact, President Elect Obama got 23 million youth to the “polling place.” Now the question is: What will we do to get them to the “market place.” What do we need to do to ensure that the most disenfranchised of our youth get a chance at opportunity?

 

Change is coming, but where will it land? Will it hit the schools and youth programs? If we were tired of 8 years of backwards administration, we must be sick with 30 years of backwards youth policy. Although youth culture and the economy have dramatically changed in the past 30 years, many of our programs have not.  We have to many 8-track programs and policies in a MP 3 world. I am not talking about computers and Star Trek distance learning systems (they don’t work), I’m talking about the technology of youth engagement – a science that for many program programs means nothing more than letting youth rap at the local youth conference.

 

Our youth facilities are still trying to crank up the 8-track player and wondering why youth aren’t listening. Sadly, we think technology is the answer.  The youth who need our help want “High Touch and High Tech.” We are just getting the later. The cracks in misunderstanding between your average middle class teacher and hard to serve student have turned to craters.  It is a sad state of affairs when we have invested more research and time in making the things  of our world work better, but our interpersonal relationships remain stagnant. We are losing our youth, and unless we continue to promote change in every aspect of our lives, we will only be talking about it, and as we all know, talk is cheap.  

 

 

If President Elect Obama got youth’s attention through bottom up, grassroots efforts and organizing; then we need a bottom-up grassroots approach to youth education and workforce development.

 

At no time in history has the challenge to the future economic opportunity of out nations’ youth been most at-risk.  The rising cost of college, and the lack of any tangible success for the sacrifice perpetuates the cloud of despair that is the reality that many youth face. Has it ever been more apparent that we need change? There is a glaring neon sign that says now is the time, but where do we start?

 

Here are some suggestions:

 

-Encourage active participation of youth, obtaining their input in redesigning current programs and policies.

-Create a service corps of well trained and properly supported youth in the community promoting life, freedom and FEO (credentials, skills, degrewes, networks and work experience).

-Invest in research to determine why our youth and workforce system has been unable to engage the youth they are intended to reach.

-Incorporate workers’ rights training and education in all curriculum and job training programs

-Ensure that youth culturally competent mental health and substance abuse counseling is made readily available.

-Guarantee transitional jobs for all program graduates.

-Promote the use of the youth cultural competence approach to change program climates and community direction.

 

Engaging and supporting disconnected youth comes with many challenges. Yet the results of our success will impact all facets of society and rebuild stronger communities. Let us listen to their voices as they share their ideas for eradicating the perpetual cycle of poverty and inequality that they are caught within. Let their voices guide us to learn new ways to replace this despair with hope, healing and confidence in a newer, brighter tomorrow.

 

Reach all Youth

 

Edward DeJesus