Using GCI data, the Chicago Tribune continues focus on youth employment

Last week, the Chicago Tribune utilized a new data report prepared by GCI in the article “Chicago tackles youth unemployment as it wrestles with its consequences.“ The report was utilized to determine which neighborhoods experienced short-term changes in youth employment. In neighborhoods with short-term changes, the article’s author, Alexia Elejalde-Ruiz, explores the community conditions and practices surrounding the local employment conditions.

The Tribune piece tells stories of youth, their challenges to find employment and chronicles how conditions such as neighborhood population loss, diminishing resources for the vulnerable and impoverished, neighborhood perceptions, and lack of large-scale training programs have contributed to the crisis of youth unemployment. The article then identifies job training, education, and placement programs along with direct employers whose efforts have positively impacted youth throughout Chicago’s neighborhoods most in need.

The new GCI report builds upon previous reports, “Lost: The Crisis Of Jobless and Out Of School Teens and Young Adults in Chicago, Illinois and the U.S.,” and, “A Lost Generation: The Disappearance of Teens and Young Adults from the Job Market in Cook County.” In contrast to previous reports, which examined 2014 employment data for 16 to 24 year olds in Chicago Community Areas, this new report examines employment data in Chicago Community Areas over time.

Highlights from the data report titled, “Youth Employment Data: Employment to Population Ratios for 16 to 19 and 20 to 24 Year Olds by Chicago Community Area, 2005-2009 to 2010-2014,” for 16 to 19 year olds include:

  • The Near South Side and Burnside had the largest percentage point increases from 2005-2009 to 2010-2014 in employment to population ratios for 16 to 19 year olds in which the Near South Side increased 24.3 and Burnside increased 28 percentage points.
  • The South Side communities with the largest percentage point increases of employment to population ratio for 20 to 24 year olds from 2005-2009 to 2010-2014 were Oakland (+4.8), Armour Square (+4.1), Englewood (+3.7), Kenwood (+2.6) and Washington Heights (+.4)
  • The West and Southwest Side Community Areas with the largest percentage point increases of employment to population ratio for 20 to 24 year olds from 2005-2009 to 2010-2014 were McKinley Park (-16.9), Clearing (-14.5), East Garfield Park (-13.9), Gage Park (-12.6), and the Lower West Side (-10.7).

For 20 to 24 Year olds:

  • The largest percentage point increases in employment to population ratios for 20 to 24 year olds from 2005-2009 to 2010-2014 for West Side Community Community Areas were Humboldt Park (+4), Hermosa (+5.6), West Garfield Park (+3), the Near West Side (+4), and West Town (+5).
  • The North Side Community Areas with the largest percentage point increases of employment to population ratio for 20 to 24 year olds from 2005-2009 to 2010-2014 included the Near North Side (+6.7), Lincoln Park (+6.6), Uptown (+2.7), and North Park (+3.1).
  • The largest percentage point increases in employment to population ratios for 20 to 24 year olds from 2005-2009 to 2010-2014 for South Side Community Areas were Fuller Park (-19.1), Oakland (-25.4), Douglas (-14.4), Grand Boulevard (-12.3), Kenwood (-12.5), South Shore (-9.4), Hyde Park (-10.5), and Englewood (-10.6).

We are excited that the Chicago Tribune continues its interest in this very important issue. We welcome others to continue their use of our reports for advocacy, grant writing, and further research to improve the quality of life in our cities and regions.

Chicago tackles youth unemployment as it wrestles with its consequences

(Zbigniew Bzdak / Chicago Tribune) Young men walk after school under a Metra viaduct at 113th Street in Chicago's Pullman neighborhood in 2014. As violence has surged in some of the city's neighborhoods, the issue of youth joblessness has taken on renewed urgency.

(Zbigniew Bzdak / Chicago Tribune)
Young men walk after school under a Metra viaduct at 113th Street in Chicago’s Pullman neighborhood in 2014. As violence has surged in some of the city’s neighborhoods, the issue of youth joblessness has taken on renewed urgency.

A new Great Cities Institute data report on youth employment was cited by the Chicago Tribune in an article on Chicago’s efforts to reduce youth unemployment.

Some data suggest youth unemployment could be worsening, even in neighborhoods like Bronzeville that are seeing new life and new jobs.

Between 2009 and 2014, when much of the country was recovering from the Great Recession, the employment rate among 20- to 24-year-olds fell by double digits in Bronzeville and several other neighborhoods mostly on the city’s South and West sides, according to data analyzed for the Tribune by the University of Illinois at Chicago‘s Great Cities Institute.

The employment rate, which is the share of the population that is working (not counting those who are imprisoned or institutionalized), is often considered a better measure of the labor market than the unemployment rate, which only counts jobless people who are looking for work and not those who have given up.

Full Story from Chicago Tribune »
View the Report »

Youth Employment Data: Employment to Population Ratios for 16 to 19 and 20 to 24 Year Olds by Chicago Community Area, 2005-2009 to 2010-2014

Author
Matthew D. Wilson

Abstract
Issues of youth employment have gained much attention in Chicago as the number of youth without Jobs has hit historic highs in recent years. As shown in the recent report prepared by the Great Cities Institute, “Lost: The Crisis Of Jobless and Out Of School Teens and Young Adults in Chicago, Illinois and the U.S.,” issues of youth joblessness are chronic and concentrated in Chicago Community Areas with the highest populations of Black residents. Chicago has higher percentages of Black and Latino youth without employment than the U.S., Illinois, Los Angeles, and New York.

In collaboration with The Chicago Tribune, this analysis by the Great Cities Institute examines by Chicago Community Area recent employment trends to identify which areas have experienced improvement in youth employment conditions. The analysis covers 5 years of employment trends for 16 to 19 and 20 to 24 year olds by Chicago Community Area to show the improving and declining employment conditions (see “Data Highlights on pages 3 and 4). With the identification of specific Community Areas, further investigation can uncover the conditions that explain the improving youth employment.

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Chicago Urban League Unveils 10-Year Blueprint For Dismantling Structural Racism

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A recent UIC Great Cities Institute report on youth joblessness in Cook County is cited in a Progress Illinois article detailing the Chicago Urban League’s 10-year plan to create more equitable education, employment and economic development opportunities for Chicago’s African American residents.

The document also sets targets of increasing African-American employment rates by 30 percent for youths and 20 percent for adults.

Among Chicagoans aged 16 to 64, unemployment rates are now 30 percent for blacks and 14 percent for whites, the report states.

Chicago’s African-American teens face even higher unemployment rates, according to research from the University of Illinois at Chicago’s Great Cities Institute. A report issued by the institute earlier this year found that 88 percent of black Chicago teens were jobless in 2014.

Full Story from Progress Illinois »

Great Cities Institute has turned 21! Join us to celebrate

GCI staff (l to r) Matt Wilson, Teresa Cordova, Tim Imeokparia, Thea Crum, Yibing Li, and Jackson Morsey with James J. Stukel (third from left).

GCI staff (l to r) Matt Wilson, Teresa Cordova, Tim Imeokparia, Thea Crum, Yibing Li, and Jackson Morsey with Dr. James J. Stukel (third from left).

Please join us November 16, 2016, 4:30 – 7:30 p.m. at Student Center East (750 S. Halsted), East Terrace Room, for a celebration of GCI and the Great Cities Concept. We are very excited that former UIC Chancellor and University of Illinois President, James J. Stukel will be our featured guest.

In March 1993, then UIC Chancellor James J. Stukel convened a 28-member Great Cities Advisory Committee (GCAC) to develop and initiate his vision for a Great Cities Initiative at UIC. Over several months the committee and its 140 member subcommittees met to develop the details of the Great Cities Concept. In addition, the committee hosted a forum with over 400 attendees from UIC, government, corporate and community organizations. The forum, held in the fall of 1994, was entitled, “The Great Cities Initiative: UIC’s Metropolitan Commitment.” The report describes the entire process as the “largest interdepartmental planning process UIC has ever undertaken.”

Among the Great Cities Advisory Committee’s recommendations was the establishment of the Great Cities Institute (GCI) as a flagship interdisciplinary go-to research center. The Great Cities Institute was created in 1995 as the institutionalized expression of the University’s unique strategy to implement the vision of UIC as a university committed to active engagement with the various constituencies in the Chicago region. Support for Great Cities was widespread.

In late 1995, then State of Illinois Governor Jim Edgar declared December 1,1995 as Great Cities Day in Illinois, stating in the resolution,

WHEREAS, cities have been centers of creativity and influence, generating knowledge and wealth that made our nation an economic and political power; and

WHEREAS, cities also face major challenges such as unemployment, schooling, crime and inadequate health care; and

WHEREAS, improvement in the quality of life in urban areas requires a comprehensive approach that addresses interrelated problems at the same time; and

WHEREAS, this integrated approach is the philosophy behind the Great Cities initiative at the University of Illinois at Chicago; and

WHEREAS, Great Cities is an institutional commitment to address human needs in Chicago and in metropolitan areas worldwide by becoming a partner with government and public agencies, corporations, and philanthropic and civic organizations; and

WHEREAS, UIC, a leading public university in a major city, produces exciting breakthroughs in the physical and social sciences and the arts and this program extends UIC’s historic strengths in fields relevant to urban areas,

THEREFORE, I, Jim Edgar, Governor of the State of Illinois, proclaim December 1, 1995, as GREAT CITIES DAY in Illinois.

In 2000, then Chancellor Sylvia Manning converted the Great Cities initiative to UIC’s Great Cities Commitment, signaling the recognition of the importance in institutionalizing this effort.

Today, the Great Cities Institute works hard to maintain the legacy of the Great Cities concept. Please join us on November 16, from 4:30 – 7:30 to hear more about GCI’s history as well as its current activities.

Wim Wiewel, now President of Portland State University, was the chair of the original Great Cities Advisory Committee and may be able to join us in November. We will also present a Tribute to Rob Mier, a member of the original committee who was critical in setting the tone for UIC’s urban engagement and in the early formation of Great Cities at UIC. In addition, we will recognize our partners and the many Great Cities Scholars and Fellows.

We are a firm believer in the importance of legacy and we are honored to carry on the efforts of those visionaries that created Great Cities at UIC.

08-22-16 GreatCitiesDayProclamation

How Shakespeare Is Helping South Chicago Transform Its Image

Bernard Shannon, owner of Bernard's Wear in South Chicago, is shown next to a poster in his shop advertising the "Shakespeare in the Parks" program. [Provided]

Bernard Shannon, owner of Bernard’s Wear in South Chicago, is shown next to a poster in his shop advertising the “Shakespeare in the Parks” program. [Provided]

A DNAinfo Chicago story on Chicago’s “Shakespeare in the Parks” program hosting a performance in the South Chicago neighborhood cites the local chamber of commerce’s work with the Great Cities Institute at UIC to develop a business district revitalization plan.

South Chicago, celebrating its 180th birthday this summer, is the former home of three steel mills and the blue-collar workers who staffed the sites. But the last of the plants closed in 1992, and the exodus of well-paying jobs has hurt residents as well as the mom and pop store owners who serve the neighborhood.

Lira and other community leaders have been working with the University of Illinois-Chicago to help draft a revitalization plan to help transform Commercial Avenue into a proper business district. They think cultural attractions like “Shakespeare in the Parks” can play a major role in helping the area.

The area has embraced the event unlike any other, Lira said. He said a local pizza place gives a flier for the event with every pizza it delivers, and the McDonald’s hands a flier out to every customer at the drive-thru window.

Full Story from DNAinfo »

Proposals for music venues in Chicago parks not music to everyone’s ears

A music pavilion has been proposed for this section of Jackson Park. (Terrence Antonio James / Chicago Tribune)

A music pavilion has been proposed for this section of Jackson Park. (Terrence Antonio James / Chicago Tribune)

Matt Wilson, GCI economic development planner, was quoted in an article on the use of public parks for private events such as music festivals. He cautions that using park spaces for private festivals makes them no longer accessible to the general public.

“Parks are gathering spaces, and when you add a physical element of an amphitheater and a stage, it’s an easy way to incorporate a tourist attraction,” said Matt Wilson, economic development planner at the Great Cities Institute at the University of Illinois at Chicago. Having the infrastructure to host concerts could give Chicago a competitive edge over other cities when it comes to drawing major events, he said.

On the other hand, the question becomes: Whose space is this, and who are these events for, he said. “Are they for Chicagoans? Probably sometimes. But you’re taking public space and an amenity for the people of Chicago and turning it into a tourism destination, turning public space into a space for others,” Wilson said.

He adds: “When you take a public park and fence it off and have people buy tickets to enter that space, it’s no longer public space.”

And sometimes those big events can do enough damage to green spaces that they’re closed for months at a time, something residents have complained about in the wake of such festivals as Riot Fest, particularly when the event was staged in Humboldt Park. In fact, the festival relocated last year after loud criticism.

Full Story from Chicago Tribune »

Great Cities Institute Fact Sheet Series

The Great Cities Institute is pleased to announce a new economic fact sheet series that will provide research and data to the public in the areas of economic restructuring, income inequality, employment disparities, and more. These fact sheets will contain information that can be utilized for advocacy, grant writing, and further research to improve the quality of live in our cities and regions.

True to GCI’s mission, this initiative embodies our commitment to harnessing the power of research and linking academic resources with partners to address urban issues.

The first fact sheet in the series was compiled for Crain’s Future of Chicago Conference on June 15th, 2016. The conference convened business, government, education, and civic leaders to have forward looking conversations in four panel discussions with audience interaction. The panel discussions were themed Criminal Justice, Education, Fiscal Crisis, and Economic Development. GCI’s Director Teresa Cordova moderated the Economic Development panel, utilizing the information on the fact sheet to set the stage for the panelists and audience and provide data points for some of the most crucial economic issues facing Chicago and Cook County.

It is our hope that the further dissemination of this information and further fact sheets will be a powerful tool to community and civic partners.

Research Fact Sheets Page »

Drafting a happy ending for this tale of two cities

The demolition of the Cabrini-Green housing complex. Photo by ThinkStock

The demolition of the Cabrini-Green housing complex. Photo by ThinkStock

GCI Director Teresa Córdova advocates utilizing new policies and innovation for ending economic inequalities in an op-ed for Crain’s. She moderated a panel on economic development at Crain’s Future of Chicago summit on June 15.

The Great Cities Institute reports tell us that Chicago is still experiencing the impacts of the rapid deindustrialization that hit the city hard, particularly since the mid-1970s. Inequalities have been exacerbated—especially those tied to segregation and concentrated joblessness. We know the range of social and economic ills that accompany high rates of joblessness, and we know that violence is one of them.

Neglect of this issue of job loss has consequences, and we can’t hide from it anymore.

Did we really think that there would not be severe long-term impacts of deindustrialization without replacing those jobs with similar high-paying jobs that provide a pathway to the middle class? The task now is to share the responsibility to reverse the damages of political and economic policies that allowed this to happen—and, at this very moment, to seek the economic policies that ensure all residents access to employment opportunities.

Full Story from Crain’s Chicago Business »