In our first roundtable, panelists discussed the substandard employment opportunities for young adults, and how policymakers must adapt their fight to improve these jobs for the post-Covid-19 world. The full video from this session is posted here.
Before the Covid-19 crisis, youth from low-income communities and communities of color disproportionately worked underpaid jobs with little to no benefits, if they could find employment opportunities at all. While the economy was delivering record profits for investors, many young adults were still struggling to get by. Covid-19 has shed light on these disparities, highlighting that essential work is often hazardous, underpaid, and under-protected.
It is difficult for young adults to get jobs with quality benefits. Christine Mompoint (a Texas Young Invincibles Young Advocate) reflected on how hard it has been for her to join the workforce during the pandemic. She shared that she lacks the resources and qualifications to get a job with health care benefits.
Economic recovery is not about getting back to systems that weren’t working. Erica Cuevas (Senior Policy Manager at Jobs For the Future) emphasized that economic inequality has been pervasive in the US for generations. Covid-19 has only worsened the pre-existing inequality that affects marginalized communities as a result of decades of discriminatory policies and practices. To address these disparities, Cuevas argued that policymakers must transform workforce systems and ensure that no one is left behind as the country recovers from this recession.
Inequality grew after the Great Recession because policy makers didn’t address the racist roots of unemployment. Toni Symonds (Chief Consultant for the California legislature’s Assembly Committee on Jobs, Economic Development, and the Economy), pointed to the inequitable recovery after the 2008 financial crisis as a cautionary tale for current recovery efforts. By creating more low-wage jobs after the Great Recession, recovery efforts actually worsened income inequality in California.
Creating an equitable recovery requires a reimagining of our social safety net. Melissa Johnson (State Strategies Director at National Skills Coalition) pointed out that only with a stronger safety net; publicly funded, workforce training and re-employment programs; and guaranteed income and health care will young adults be adequately supported as they look for employment opportunities.
Work-based learning opportunities at the secondary and postsecondary levels are crucial to giving young adults access to quality jobs. Work-based learning gives young people real-world work experience and technical knowledge that prepares them for the world of work, also empowering them to advance once they enter the workforce. To take advantage of this potential, Erica Cuevas’s organization, Jobs For the Future, believes that programs like the federal work-study program must be more accessible and offer a wider range of career paths. In light of Covid-19, Cuevas also noted the need to digitally scale up these work-based learning opportunities so they can be widely accessed online.
We aren’t going to train our way out of this recession. Melissa Johnson pointed out that there are many factors contributing to the historically high unemployment rate: lack of worker power, a glut of job cuts hitting the labor market, short-term business decisions, and a lack of demand in certain sectors. Consequently, while training programs that address skills mismatches can certainly prepare people for industries that are still in need of workers (e.g., health care, tech, PPE manufacturing), these training programs can only go so far. Skills training is just one piece of equitably emerging from the pandemic.
Workforce development policies must create holistic remedies that take into account the unique needs of the communities they serve. Toni Symonds shared that a colleague of hers was able to remove barriers to workforce development resources by adopting a more holistic approach. Her colleague created a single center that housed multiple workforce development services, including social services, apprenticeship training, and consultations with experts. Clustering the services together made it easier for people to access multiple services at once without having to visit multiple locations. Further, the center offered free parking and was accessible via public transit, making it that much easier for people to get to the center.
Internet access is a huge barrier to education and workforce training during the pandemic. Christine Mompoint noted that internet access has impeded her and her fellow classmates from pursuing an education, especially during the Covid crisis. She described how students at her college have had to sit in parking lots just to have access to wifi while doing their homework assignments.
Closing Thoughts
Session 1 panelists emphasized that recovery efforts in response to Covid-19 may not adequately address the mounting inequality in the US. The recovery for the 2008 financial crisis actually worsened wealth disparities by creating low-wage jobs. Panelists consequently underscored the importance of creating an inclusive recovery response to the Covid-19 crisis – a recovery that adequately supports marginalized communities by holistically recognizing all of their needs. Melissa Johnson highlighted career pathways programs and SNAP-assisted workforce programs as potential policy solutions to this end; these programs have created great outcomes for Black and Latinx young adults by connecting them to workforce resources in tandem with food and housing assistance.
In the next roundtable, panelists further analyzed America’s insufficient social supports, unpacking how they stifle the economic mobility of young adults.
