At the turn of the 21st century, employment rates among teenagers and young adults in the United States began falling dramatically, a trend that accelerated during the Great Recession and has since reversed little. In this context, public programs that provide paid summer jobs to young people may play an especially important role in providing early work experiences for teenagers and young adults who would not otherwise have them. Participants in these programs benefit by earning immediate income and may also learn valuable work-related soft skills that could help them in the future.

As a result of the program, those who won places in SYEP through a randomized lottery were 54 percentage points more likely to be employed and earned $580 more during that summer, on average, than those who did not.

This report examines the impacts of the nation’s largest summer youth jobs program — New York City’s Summer Youth Employment Program (SYEP) — on young people’s education, employment, and earnings. MDRC’s evaluation, which is funded by the U.S. Department of Labor and a private foundation, includes a sample of nearly 265,000 young people who applied to SYEP for the first time between 2006 and 2010. The analysis uses an experimental design that relies on SYEP’s randomized lottery application system. Drawing on interviews, focus groups, and a survey of service providers conducted in 2015, the report also describes SYEP’s implementation and the experiences of participants.

Read the source article at mdrc.org

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Erin Jacobs Valentine is a research associate focusing primarily on evaluations of programs that serve individuals in the criminal justice system, the juvenile justice system, and foster care.

Chloe Anderson is a research analyst focusing on evaluations of programs that serve disadvantaged young people and adults, public assistance recipients, and hard-to-employ populations.

Farhana Hossain is a research associate with a dual role as an associate for implementation research and external affairs at MDRC.

Rebecca Unterman is a research associate in the K-12 Education Policy Area.