10,000 Youths Get Their First Break in Job Market

Ten thousand jobs may be only a drop in the bucket for an age group facing an unemployment rate of more than 18%, but it’s a start, and providing a start is what the First Break program is all about.

First Break, a privately funded joint project of the Los Angeles Area Chamber of Commerce and Los Angeles Unified School District, aims to give local teen-agers an entry into the world of work, that “first break” in the job market.

As of last week, 1,043 employers had pledged 10,884 jobs since the 1985 drive was launched last spring, according to project coordinator Eleanor Torguson. In the 12 years and three recessions since First Break began, Southland employers ranging from Southern California Edison to the FBI have provided more than 100,000 job openings, many of which have led to permanent positions for the young participants.

“These youngsters get experience in the corporate business world,” Torguson said. “It’s not a poverty program where someone says, ‘Take a broom and sweep this floor till the end of summer.’ They are capable youngsters doing a job that’s not just make-work.”

On average, this year’s employees are earning $3.53 an hour, slightly above the minimum wage of $3.35, she said. Many are working in shopping malls, fast-food outlets and local theme parks--traditional areas for kids.

But one of the problems in dealing with job placement in the inner-city areas is that there are few jobs available that teen-agers are equipped to do. “There are no malls, no shopping centers,” Torguson said. “There are constraints against youngsters, like operating machinery before age 18, union shops or government work involving security (clearances),” she said.