Starbucks and Other Corporations to Announce Plan to Curb Unemployment of Young People
By NELSON D. SCHWARTZ

Spearheaded by Starbucks and its chief executive, Howard Schultz, nearly 20 big American corporations will unveil a plan on Monday to find jobs for 100,000 unemployed young people over the next three years.

The effort, to be called the 100,000 Opportunities Initiative, is aimed at the estimated 5.6 million Americans ages 16 to 24 who are neither studying nor working, and will offer full-time positions as well as apprenticeships and internships.

Leaders in government, business and academia are confronting growing income inequality despite steady economic growth and are looking for new entryways into middle-class jobs for American workers who lack a college degree — more than 60 percent of the country’s work force.

At 18.1 percent, the unemployment rate for workers age 16 to 19 remains more than three times as high as the 5.3 percent jobless rate for the entire work force. Unemployment among young people has remained stubbornly high, rising a full percentage point since February, even as other economic yardsticks have improved.

“Summer jobs and in-school jobs have declined rapidly for this group,” said Robert Lerman, a professor of economics at American University and an expert on youth employment. “The lack of work experience translates into weaker outcomes even after they finish their schooling.”

Last year, Starbucks began a plan to enable its baristas to earn a college degree online from Arizona State University, with the coffee giant picking up much of the bill. Privately, the family foundation created by Mr. Schultz and his wife, Sheri, recently donated $30 million to help veterans of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq transition to civilian life and find work, and he plans to earmark $30 million to increase economic opportunities for young people.

“The leadership at the local and federal level isn’t providing the kind of results we need to address these issues,” Mr. Schultz said in an interview on Sunday. As a result, he said, companies “have to do everything we can to ensure the playing field is level.”

In addition to Starbucks, 16 other companies are participating in the 100,000 Opportunities Initiative, including Alaska Airlines, CVS Health, Microsoft, Taco Bell, Target and Walmart. Hilton, the hotel chain, is promising to hire 15,000 “at risk” young people in the next three years.

The Aspen Institute’s Forum for Community Solutions will provide much of the local leadership and technical assistance for the initiative, which is also being backed by deep-pocketed philanthropies like the Rockefeller Foundation and the MacArthur Foundation.

On Aug. 13, many of the participating companies will take part in a job fair organized by the Chicago Cook Workforce Partnership. The goal is to make 200 job offers on the spot and hire another 1,000 workers in the Chicago area over the next 18 months.

Before leading Starbucks and turning the coffee purveyor into a global brand, Mr. Schultz grew up in public housing and was the first member of his family to attend college. But young people today face much longer odds in achieving that kind of trajectory, he said.

“We’re living at a time when for-profit public companies must redefine their responsibilities to the communities they serve and to their employees,” he said.

In reference to contacting other chief executives, Mr. Schultz said: “This ‘ask’ was quite easy. There is a significant inequality gap that exists, and some of these things go back to my own personal story of growing up poor in Brooklyn and the access I had to the American dream.”

Although Mr. Schultz and his company have had a long history of staking out progressive stands — like making health insurance available to part-time employees — not all of his public-minded initiatives have gone smoothly.

An effort to initiate a broader conversation on race, with baristas writing Race Together on coffee cups, was quickly dropped in March after criticism and derision on social media.

Other critics have questioned whether Starbucks, whose soaring stock has given the Seattle-based company a market value of more than $80 billon and made Mr. Schultz a billionaire, can really do more than generate headlines when it comes to problems as intractable as poverty and income inequality.

After all, an extra 100,000 jobs is less than half of what the economy has been creating each month so far this year, according to Labor Department data.

And while Starbucks typically pays more than the minimum wage, unlike some other chains, the $10 to $15 hourly wages of its 130,000 baristas are often barely enough to make ends meet. The same holds true at other employers participating in the 100,000 Opportunities Initiative, like Walmart and Taco Bell.

For his part, Mr. Schultz acknowledged that even hiring 100,000 young people falls far short of addressing the question of where millions of unemployed will find a niche in the modern economy, where credentials and technical skills are now essential for jobs that once required only a high school diploma.

But he is hoping more companies sign on, and that the 100,000 goal will serve as an initial target as momentum builds. “You have to start somewhere,” he said. “Our ultimate goal is to create the largest employer-led coalition creating pathways to good jobs for young people.”

Noting Starbucks’s new effort to subsidize employees as they work toward their bachelor’s degree, Mr. Schultz added: “Our initiative doesn’t end with a job. We have to make them stick around by providing a pathway to continuing their education.”

美國星巴克帶頭救失業 雇10萬青年

紐約時報報導，在星巴克執行長舒茲帶頭下，美國十七家大企業定十三日宣布計畫，要在三年內雇用十萬名無業青年，以降低青年失業率。

計畫名為「十萬個機會方案」，這些企業將針對美國十六到廿四歲、既沒上學也沒在工作的五百六十萬名青年，提供全職、學徒與實習工作機會。參與的企業除了星巴克以外，還包括微軟、零售商沃爾瑪、連鎖飯店希爾頓等。

希爾頓承諾，未來三年將雇用一萬五千名「需要幫助」的青年。參與方案的多數企業將在八月十三日參加芝加哥就業博覽會，目標是當場錄取兩百人，一年半內在芝加哥與周邊地區再雇用一千人。

美國經濟穩定成長，人民收入差距卻愈來愈大，六成以上勞工沒有大學文憑。產官學界領袖都在尋找方法，讓沒上過大學的人也能從事中產階級工作。

美國十六到十九歲勞工失業率高達百分之十八點一，是整體勞工的三倍以上。從今年二月以來，多數經濟指標轉好，青年失業率卻增加一個百分點。

華府「美利堅大學」研究青年就業現象的教授勒曼說：「青年的暑期與在學工作機會大減，即使他們完成學業，缺乏工作經驗也會讓他們就業困難。」

舒茲說，他小時候家境清寒，在政府為低收入戶興建的公共住宅中長大，是家中第一個上大學的人，但現在年輕人脫貧比以前困難，「以賺錢為目標的企業，必須重新思考它們對社會與員工的責任」。

不過，有人批評說，星巴克股價飆漲讓公司市值突破八百億美元，舒茲也成了億萬富豪，舒茲若要改善貧富差距問題，其實可以做得更多。

畢竟，根據美國勞工部的資料，十萬個工作機會還不到今年以來美國每月新增工作機會的一半。

此外，雖然星巴克給員工的薪資高於法定基本工資，但十到十五美元的時薪仍不足以讓員工餬口。參與方案的其他一些企業也是如此，如沃爾瑪和連鎖快餐店「塔可鐘」。

美國咖啡巨擘星巴克（Starbucks）和執行長舒茲13日與近20家美國大企業發表一項計畫，將在未來三年為10萬名失業青年找工作，以降低青年失業率。

這項名為「10萬個機會行動」的計畫，目標是幫助年齡介於16歲至24歲、均未就學與就業的560萬名美國青年，這些企業將提供年輕人全職工作、學徒見習和實習的機會。

除了星巴克，阿拉斯加航空、CVS健康公司和微軟等16家公司也都參與這項計畫，承諾在未來三年雇用1.5萬名陷入「就業危機」的青年。

參與這項計畫的數家公司，將於8月13日參加由芝加哥企業合作組織舉辦的就業博覽會；該博覽會的目標是在現場創造200個工作機會，未來18個月再雇用1,000名勞工。

通識教育機構亞斯本（Aspen）的合作解決論壇（FCS）將提供在地指導與技術協助，洛克菲勒（Rockfeller）和麥卡瑟（Macarthur）等兩大慈善基金會也贊助這項計畫。

星巴克去年已開始讓自家員工透過線上學習，取得亞歷桑納州立大學的學位，由星巴克將支付其中多數的費用。舒茲也計劃投資3,000萬美元，以增加年輕人的經濟機會。

儘管美國經濟穩定成長，但也正面臨民眾所得不均逐漸惡化的狀況，因此各界都希望找到新方法，讓沒有大學學位、占美國整體人力60%的勞工，找到中產階級工作。

原文參照：
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/07/13/business/starbucks-and-other-corporations-to-announce-plan-to-curb-unemployment-of-young-people.html

2015-07-14．聯合報．A13．國際．編譯李京倫
經濟日報 編譯林昀嫻