May 10, 2009 7:44 am US/Eastern
Stimulus Will Help NYC Youths Find Summer Work
NEW YORK (CBS) ―
Summer is about to get a whole lot brighter for tens of thousands of teenagers.
Governor David Paterson and Mayor Michael Bloomberg announced Saturday how the federal stimulus plan is helping teens in the tri-state.
16-year-old Lisa Saldana is like a lot of kids her age – excited about the start of summer with her friends, but worried about getting a job to earn money for what she needs.
"[I need money] for my studies, for when I go away to college," Saldana says.
With the dour economy and scarcity of jobs affecting so many, some economists are saying this could be the worst summer job market for teens like Lisa in six decades.
"It's not very good, let me tell you," Saldana says.
"Young people, age 16-19, are unemployed by a rate of 22 percent," Gov. Paterson said.
So it was Saturday that Gov. Paterson and Mayor Bloomberg announced a boom for young job-seekers.
New York State will be receiving $100 million of federal stimulus money, $29 million for New York City alone, and the bulk of that money will be used on job programs for young people.
"Today's good news is that even more help is on the way," Bloomberg said.
The money means that 51,000 jobs will be available through the city's summer youth employment program – that's more than 8,000 more jobs than were available in 2008.
The jobs run for seven weeks, pay the minimum wage of $7.25 an hour, and encompass all fields.
"We have small businesses, printing shops, auto shops, Barnes and Noble," Jeanne Mullgrave, of the Department of Youth and Community Development, says. "We have some non-profits, the American Cancer Society; we have museums, parks, government agencies."
Anyone interested in the jobs must be between the ages of 14 and 24, and the deadline to apply is May 15. More than 81,000 applications have reportedly been received thus far.
To find out how to apply, visit the NYC Department of Youth and Community Development's Web site
here.
(© 2009 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)
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