Commentary: Pa. should celebrate Labor Day by investing in jobs programs

This Labor Day, many Pennsylvanians are shut out of the labor market despite their best efforts.

Take one young mother who lives with her baby at a homeless shelter. She recently completed probation for a single misdemeanor conviction for possessing marijuana. She has been searching for a job, but can't find an employer willing to hire a young woman with a minor criminal record. She has been turned down by several employers, including a fast-food restaurant and clothing stores.

To give this woman and other people living in deep poverty a real chance at self-sufficiency, subsidized jobs programs are essential. Jobs programs create public jobs that benefit everyone. They improve infrastructure or public services, and they create financial incentives for small businesses and other private employers to hire new employees.

A recent report by the Georgetown University Law Center on Poverty and Inequality, "Lessons Learned from 40 Years of Subsidized Employment Programs," found that subsidized jobs are highly effective in fighting persistent poverty, raising employment rates and incomes, and improving the futures of children living in poverty.

Jobs programs are particularly important in Philadelphia because 26 percent of residents live in poverty and nearly 13 percent live in deep poverty - the highest rates of any large city in the nation. And in Pennsylvania, 33 counties have poverty rates of 13 percent or higher.

In recent months, advocates, policy makers, and commentators on the left and right have called for the creation of jobs programs because they don't just fight poverty, but they also save taxpayers money. The cost of incarcerating someone is $42,000 per year. The cost of caring for someone experiencing homelessness is $40,000 per year. The cost of connecting someone to a subsidized job for one year is just $25,000. Federal, state, and local funding already exists that can be used to cover the costs of jobs programs.

Jobs programs can help workers with employment barriers, such as young people, people with criminal records, and people with disabilities - groups that remain severely underemployed, even as Pennsylvania as whole recovers from recession.

In Philadelphia, the unemployment rate for youth aged 16 to 24 who are not in school is a staggering 30.6 percent, even though youth are more likely than adults to be actively seeking work. Many of these youth are on their own, trying to support themselves and often their children, and when they can't find work, their families suffer and they are more likely to get caught up in the criminal justice system or face homelessness.

Connecting people returning from prison or on active supervision with employment is one of the single best ways to increase public safety and reduce recidivism. Every year, 250,000 Pennsylvanians and 50,000 Philadelphians are on probation or parole, and 60 percent of those returning home from prison remain unemployed a year later. This population will never be fully employed by the private job market.

Many people with disabilities are unable to find work, but their conditions are not considered severe enough to qualify them for disability benefits, so they are left to struggle to get by without any income at all. Almost 70 percent of Philadelphians with disabilities are not working, but a jobs program could help many of them support themselves and provide the vital income they need to survive.

When people are given an opportunity to work, they are more likely to stay employed after their participation in jobs programs ends. Young people and people with disabilities build work experience and develop positive references. People with criminal records show that they are not risks to employers.

This year, both Philadelphia and Pennsylvania should celebrate Labor Day by investing in jobs programs for their residents who are facing persistent unemployment. We can lift many families out of poverty while improving our communities.

Kristen Dama is a supervising attorney at Community Legal Services of Philadelphia. kdama@clsphila.org

Jamie Gullen is a staff attorney at Community Legal Services. jgullen@clsphila.org.