Harvey expo seeks to link youth with summer jobs

It was just a couple of weeks ago, U.S. Rep. Robin Kelly said, that a man approached her inside a store where she was shopping and thanked her for helping his son find a job.

The man's son had attended the congresswoman's Youth Job and Resource Expo held a year ago in Harvey, and had been able to find work through the event, Kelly said Tuesday.

Her office is again hosting the Job and Resource Expo from 9 a.m. to noon April 21 at Thornton Township High School, 15001 Broadway Ave., Harvey.

Kelly said her office doesn't track how many young people come away from the event with a job — although some firms hire on the spot, others take information that could later lead to employment — although she talks with employers who attend and they find the expo valuable in finding workers.

The event is designed for people ages 16 to 24 seeking seasonal jobs during the summer months, whether high school students on break or returning college students, Alan Banks, coordinator of the expo, said Tuesday.

About 400 young people attended last year's expo. The event is separate from a jobs fair Kelly sponsors in the fall that is geared toward adult job seekers.

More than 50 companies and agencies will take applications for jobs as well as summer internships and apprenticeships, although this year's expo has more of a focus on placing young people in temporary summer jobs, Banks said. Companies such as Burger King, Chase Bank, GameStop, McDonald's, Nike, Walgreens and Walmart will have representatives at the event, according to Kelly's office.

Banks said that more company hiring managers will be attending this year's expo, which could make it easier for those attending to be hired on the spot.

Prior to the expo, Kelly's office will host a Job Readiness Training Session from 5:30 to 7 p.m. April 19 in the Technical Building of Thornton High School.

There, students can get tips on interviewing for a job, how to dress for the event and help with creating a resume, Banks said.

A high school student may have little or no prior job experience to include in a resume, Banks said, although "everything you've done" as far as activities that are part of school or outside of school can show a prospective employer your ability to handle a job.

"It might be something as simple as babysitting your little sister," he said. "If you don't have actual work experiences, you have other experience you can build off of."

In its fifth year, the job expo was held for the first two years held at Gwendolyn Brooks College Preparatory Academy in Chicago's Roseland community, and this is the third year at Thornton, Banks said.

Kelly said the initial job fair came about as she was "looking for ways to keep young folks off the streets in the summer and give them something productive to do."

While unemployment rates have been dropping in many parts of the Chicago area as the economy has gradually improved, high rates of joblessness have persisted in several south suburbs, particularly those with larger minority populations.

In February, the most recent data available, the unemployment rate in the Chicago metro area, not seasonally adjusted, was 5.3 percent, unchanged from a year earlier, according to the Illinois Department of Employment Security.

In Dolton, the jobless rate in February was 8.3 percent, up from 7.5 percent in February 2017, while Harvey's unemployment rate was 10 percent in February, up from 9.4 percent a year earlier, according to the state.

By comparison, the rate in Orland Park in February was 4.1 percent, and neighboring Tinley Park had a jobless rate of 4.4 percent, according to state data.

Kelly noted that those unemployment figures don't tell the full story, and that jobless rates for young people in her district, particularly African-American males, are "still way too high."

A 2016 report by the Great Cities Institute at the University of Illinois at Chicago showed that, in 2014, almost 40 percent of black 20- to 24-year-olds in Cook County were both unemployed and not attending school. That figure compared with 15 percent of Hispanics and 8 percent of whites in that age range who were both jobless and not going to school.

Kelly's office is encouraging people who want to attend the jobs expo or the training session to pre-register, although registration isn't required. To register, visit reprobinkelly.eventbrite.com.