WaPo: Where have all the summer jobs for teenagers gone? How quickly they forget

[ProSense]

Where have all the summer jobs for teenagers gone?

Call it the case of the missing summer jobs.

According to Northeastern University economist Andrew Sum, only a third of American 16- to 19-year-olds had a job last summer, the lowest level on record and down from 52 percent a decade ago. The decline began long before the current economic crisis, so high unemployment is not the only culprit. But the question of who is to blame has launched your classic Washington think tank skirmish.

Ask Republicans: Senate Kills Off More Job Opportunities

It seems that lately, investing in our future isn't a high priority for Congress. If it were, the amendment to extend funding for emergency TANF and thousands of summer jobs would have cleared the Senate this week. Instead, the proposal only got 55 votes out of the 60 needed to provide states with $2.6 billion -- money intended to help families in emergency financial situations and to support youth employment. The proposal set forth by Sens. John Kerry and Patty Murray would have created at least 500,000 jobs for teenagers this year, and simultaneously could have provided impoverished families with much needed subsidies.

Kerry is still pushing for its passage:

Kerry: Vice President Biden Right to Push for Jobs for Parents in Poverty

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Senator John Kerry (D-Mass.), co-author of the Senate’s legislation to extend the country’s current program to provide jobs for parents in need, today applauded Vice President Joe Biden for using his Middle Class Task Force to help provide employers with strong incentives to hire unemployed workers.

Kerry’s legislation to extend the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) Emergency Fund, co-authored with Senator Patty Murray (D-Wash.), was blocked by Senate Republicans in March. The bill is likely to be taken up again as part of the American Jobs and Closing Tax Loopholes Act currently before the Senate.

“The middle class is the backbone of our economy, and the road from recession to recovery runs straight through policies to strengthening the middle class,” Sen. Kerry said. “The TANF creates 186,000 jobs to lift poor families out of poverty. Two months ago, Sen. Murray and I offered a common-sense amendment that would extend the TANF Emergency Fund and create hundreds of thousands of summer jobs for our nation’s youth. It would’ve passed if only we’d found a Republican vote. After the recess, we get another crack at passing it, and need to make sure the Senate doesn’t miss another chance to do the right thing for our economy.”

The American Jobs and Closing Tax Loopholes Act includes Senator Kerry’s amendment to extend the TANF Emergency Fund for one year and to create 300,000 jobs for youth ages 16 to 24 through summer employment programs.

Massachusetts could receive up to $108 million from the TANF extension to help put struggling families back to work and to provide a vital safety net during this economic downturn. The funding for summer employment programs would create 8,000 jobs for youth in the Commonwealth.

[karynnj]

1. Other than the facts themself,what is interesting is the sources on the three links

The first, describing the problem, but is at a loss for the reason or whether anything was tried to prevent it. Had they checked the roll calls in the House and Senate, which are extremely easy to find, they too could have written the information in the second clip - which is from an activist blog. As to what people are still trying to do, the third is a press release from Senator Kerry's office. Something tells me the Washington Post is a big enough paper to be on the distribution list.

The question is why when he has the interest to ask the question, are his research skills so poor. Even if given just an hour to research and write something on the availability of summer jobs and the reasons for that, he should have been able to do better.