(WBBM NEWSRADIO) — A new study on post-COVID youth employment in Chicago finds that young, minority Chicagoans were hit the hardest economically.
The report was commissioned by the Alternate Schools Network and uses U.S. Census Bureau Data from 2019 — just before the pandemic hit — with results from 2022.
It found that the number of unemployed and out-of-school Black Chicagoans between the ages of 16 – 19 more than doubled between 2021 – 2022.
The authors of the study pointed to evidence that short-term job programs, such as the One Summer Chicago Plus initiative and a similar effort in Boston, led to positive short-term impacts for those participants.
Researchers claimed that arrests for violent crimes decreased by 43% for teens who took part in the One Summer Chicago Plus program.
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