Bracing For Another Pandemic Summer, Youth Advocates Call For Jobs And College Help
arrow Mayor Bill de Blasio at a SYEP event in 2016. Michael Appleton/Mayoral Photography Office
As New York City’s teenagers and young adults face another summer disrupted by the pandemic, advocates and community leaders are warning that the lack of jobs and opportunities for this generation could have dire consequences.
Citing the budget crisis caused by the pandemic, last year Mayor Bill de Blasio gutted the long-standing Summer Youth Employment Program, the largest youth jobs program in the country. After intense lobbying, de Blasio restored $51 million of the $124 million budget for the rebranded SYEP Summer Bridge program. However, the reduction in funding meant that jobs were available for 35,000 teenagers and young adults, less than half of the usual number.
NEW YORK Young and eager, Harry Rosado never had trouble finding a job.
Fresh out of high school, he was hired as a sales associate in Midtown Manhattan at Journeys and then at Zumiez, two fashion stores popular with young shoppers. He moved on to Uncle Jack’s Meat House in Queens, where he earned up to $300 a week as a busser.
Then Rosado, 23, was laid off in March when the steakhouse shut down because of the pandemic. He was called back after the steakhouse reopened, but business was slow. In August, he was out of work again.
New York City has been hit harder by the economic crisis set off by the pandemic than most other major American cities.