Youngstown Daily Legal News

Measure seeks to increase youth job opportunities

KEITH ARNOLD
Special to the Legal News
Published: June 13, 2017

A legislative measure aimed at bolstering youth employment numbers got a first hearing last week by members of the Ohio House of Representatives seated on the Higher Education and Workforce Development Committee.

The Cleveland Democrat and sponsor of House Bill 203, Rep. John Barnes Jr., seeks to require the state's director of Development Services to establish a youth summer jobs pledging initiative to increase access to summer employment opportunities for high school and college youth.

"We are still in the midst of economic recovery and based on the evidence, the Federal Reserve has refused to raise interest rates as the economy continues to show signs of softness, and because we have huge numbers of adults who are unemployed, we are failing to give our young people the experience of a lifetime with receiving that first job," Barnes told his peers.

The summer jobs pledge initiative would function by identifying and compiling job pledges made by Ohio businesses made available through a searchable database on the OhioMeansJobs website and publicized in a manner targeting high school and college youth.

Another provision of the bill would encourage initiative participants to answer anonymously the question: "What do you dream about doing with your first paycheck?" Answers would be compiled in an annual report to be submitted to legislative leaders in the General Assembly.

In addition to creating the initiative, the head of Development Services would adopt rules to operate, maintain and improve the initiative.

Barnes said integrating the jobs pledge initiative into the OhioMeansJobs website was both an efficient use of an existing platform and a cost effective practice, "having almost zero cost to the state of Ohio and making this initiative consistent with ongoing Ohio workforce initiatives."

Youth unemployment for the state's youngest workers - those between the ages of 16 and 24 - is a little more than twice the unemployment rate for the entire state, according to published reports of U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Barnes also cited instances of youth violence and other activity as evidence supporting his premise.

The lawmaker was precise with his language when he told committee members the pledge initiative should not be a chore for the companies participating.

"We do not seek, in this bill, to impose burdensome requirements on businesses, and what we are looking for is to establish business partners," Barnes said. "This is not intended to place responsibilities on business through public policy, but we are asking businesses to step up and volunteer to this initiative, which will contribute significantly to coming together to work together to respond to our collective interests of building the best 21st century workforce."

According to analysis of the bill provided by the Ohio Legislative Service Commission, HB 203 also would call for the creation of a scale to determine the suggested number of employment opportunities an employer may pledge to be available to high school and college youth during the summer.

The determination would be based on the employer's assets, annual gross receipts, and number of employees, the analysis detailed.

Development Services would be required to identify and compile pledges of employment opportunities for the coming summer no later than the end of February each year, the commission also found.

Rules would be adopted under the Administrative Procedure Act.

HB 203, which had not been scheduled for further hearing at time of publication, is sponsored solely by Barnes.

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