The Tragic Loss of the Summer Jobs Program: Why it is Time to Reinstate!

Publication Date: July 2007

Publisher: Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies (U.S.)

Author(s): Linda Harris

Research Area: Labor

Type: Report

Coverage: United States

Abstract:

For more than three decades, the federal summer jobs program provided early work exposure for youth, including more than half a million low-income youth each year in the late 1990s--until the program came to an end with the implementation of the Workforce Investment Act of 1998. In light of the peril and the disparities in education and labor market outcomes facing youth in high-poverty communities, there are compelling reasons for re-instituting the federal investment in summer jobs.

This article originally appeared in Focus magazine, a publication of the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies.