Jobless teens: 'We have the potential for really a lost generation'
EUGENE, Ore. - Latoya Williams worked as an intern at Selco Credit Union through the Workforce Network program.
Now she has a full time job as a Member Service Representative.
"I'm really thankful that the Lane Workforce Network got me in this position as an intern," she said.
But the Workforce Programs can only reach 300 teens a year, a small dent in a jobs crisis with lasting implications.
Nationwide, the unemployment rate stands at 9.5 percent. For teens, the rate is 26 percent. With 24,000 teenagers looking for work and failing to find it, Oregon ranks 5th worst in the nation for teen unemployment.
"If we can't provide work opportunities for them," said Chuck Forster with the Lane Workforce Partnership, which runs the Workforce Network, "then we have the potential for really a lost generation who just will never catch up in terms of wages and jobs."
Forster said state economists have told him Oregon likely won't recover all the jobs lost to the recession until 2015.
Meanwhile, the Workforce Network and similar progams are giving some kids a shot.
"We're talking about runaways and homeless youth who have no job experience," said Liz Schwarz, director of the New Roads program at Looking Glass Youth Services.
The New Roads program is putting kids to work this summer cleaning Eugene parks, giving some youth their first job experience.
"I'm learning that I'm stronger than I thought I was," said teen Barbara Powers.
"You build character and you work," said Brandon Taylor, one of Powers' co-workers on a crew working at Alton Baker Park.
