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SENATE RESOLUTION

 
2     WHEREAS, The U.S. economy is experiencing the worst
3 slow-down in the past 30 years and is facing a severe
4 recession; and
 
5     WHEREAS, The U.S. economy has shed more than 1 million
6 payroll jobs in the 10 months of 2008 and now has on average
7 2.8 million more unemployed persons than one year ago; and
 
8     WHEREAS, At 33%, this was the worst summer teen (16 to 19)
9 employment rate in post-World War II history, and this national
10 employment crisis is crippling the teen job market, with Black
11 and Latino youth the hardest-hit groups; and
 
12     WHEREAS, In the summer of 2008, more than 2 million
13 low-income youth were out of work and on the streets; and
 
14     WHEREAS, In October 2008, 68% of teens were jobless and
15 there were 500,000 fewer teens employed than in October 2007,
16 and the nation's teen employment rate fell by three percentage
17 points over the past 12 months; and
 
18     WHEREAS, Youth, particularly Black and Hispanic, are
19 living in a "Depression" with very high jobless rates - 77% of
20 Black youth and 69% of Hispanic youth across the country; and
 

 

 

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1     WHEREAS, President Bush, President-elect Obama, and the
2 Congress are now proposing a very large stimulus to restart the
3 U.S. economy; and
 
4     WHEREAS, From 1964 until 2000, there was a separate summer
5 youth employment program for over 750,000 low-income youth, and
6 these jobs were often the first jobs for low-income youth,
7 giving them a chance to work and gain experience to later find
8 a job on their own; and
 
9     WHEREAS, The summer youth employment program was
10 eliminated when the youth employment and training program was
11 revamped in 2000; and
 
12     WHEREAS, Teen employment has a variety of long-term
13 benefits for youth as well as the short-term improvement in
14 their earnings and income; the more teens work when they are 16
15 and 17, the more likely they are to work when they are 18 and
16 19, and then they are more likely to work when they are 20 and
17 21; teen employment raises earnings of youth when they reach
18 25; and
 
19     WHEREAS, Teens who work are more likely to get trained by
20 their employers via formal apprenticeship training, and
21 low-income youth who work more in high school, especially

 

 

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1 males, are less likely to drop out of high school, and female
2 teens who work more are less likely to get pregnant; and
 
3     WHEREAS, Illinois has demonstrated this past summer how to
4 quickly and successfully implement a broad-based summer youth
5 employment program that employed nearly 10,000 youth across the
6 State; therefore, be it
 
7     RESOLVED, BY THE SENATE OF THE NINETY-FIFTH GENERAL
8 ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, that the Illinois State
9 Senate urges President Bush, President-elect Obama, and the
10 Congress to allocate $2 billion of the next proposed economic
11 stimulus to create an employment program throughout the year,
12 and with a particular emphasis on the summer, for 1 million
13 youth (13 to 21 years old), combining education and productive
14 work in their neighborhoods; teens would earn money while they
15 are producing meaningful work, and they will spend this money
16 immediately providing a direct economic stimulus to the U.S.
17 economy; and be it further
 
18     RESOLVED, That suitable copies of this resolution be
19 delivered to President Bush, President-elect Obama, and each
20 member of the Illinois Congressional delegation.