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Is Connecticut Suffering From a Youth Jobs Crisis?

Adults and children ordering at a fast food restaurant.
John Bunting
/
Flickr Creative Commons
Adults and children ordering at a fast food restaurant.

In Connecticut, youth unemployment rates are at historic highs, with teenagers being disproportionately affected. This hour, we take a closer look at some of the latest trends and find out what’s being done to help young people find jobs. 

How old were you when you got your first job? Was that experience valuable to you? Share your story in the comments below.

GUESTS:

  • Drew DeSilver - Senior writer at the Pew Research Center
  • Alicia Sasser Modestino - Associate Professor of Public Policy and Economics at Northeastern University
  • Eliana Cardeno - Director of Jr. Apprentice, a teen apprenticeship program in Hartford
  • Cyncere Preston - Student at Hartford’s Journalism and Media Academy Magnet School/CPBN Learning Lab 
  • Bruce Tulgan - Founder and CEO of Rainmaker Thinking, Inc. in New Haven; author of several books including Bridging the Soft Skills Gap: How to Teach the Missing Basics to Today’s Young Talent

Join the conversation on Facebook and Twitter.

John Dankosky and Chion Wolf contributed to this show, which originally aired on October 19, 2015.

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SOMOS CONNECTICUT es una iniciativa de Connecticut Public, la emisora local de NPR y PBS del estado, que busca elevar nuestras historias latinas y expandir programación que alza y informa nuestras comunidades latinas locales. Visita CTPublic.org/latino para más reportajes y recursos. Para noticias, suscríbase a nuestro boletín informativo en ctpublic.org/newsletters.

Federal funding is gone.

Congress has eliminated all funding for public media.

That means $2.1 million per year that Connecticut Public relied on to deliver you news, information, and entertainment programs you enjoyed is gone.

The future of public media is in your hands.

All donations are appreciated, but we ask in this moment you consider starting a monthly gift as a Sustainer to help replace what’s been lost.

Connecticut Public’s journalism is made possible, in part by funding from Jeffrey Hoffman and Robert Jaeger.