Properties
Menu
A dozen major U.S. companies, including Chipotle Mexican Grill, FedEx, and Prudential, joined a Starbucks-led coalition on Tuesday, pledging to help create 100,000 jobs for unemployed youth by the end of 2018.
They join 17 other big U.S. companies that launched the 100,000 Opportunities Initiative last month, an effort that seeks to jump start the future of some of the 5.5 million Americans, ages 16 to 24, who are neither in school nor employed. Demographers and economists refer to the group as "disconnected youth."
Other companies that announced Tuesday they signed on include Domino’s, Hyatt, Mars, Nordstrom, Pizza Hut, Red Robin, Sweetgreen and T-Mobile.
“We felt it was our responsibility, and privilege, to join the 100,000 Opportunities Initiative to help provide young people with the tools and know-how to get job ready,” Pizza Hut CEO David Gibbs said.
The push to take on the yawning problem of youth unemployment is spearheaded by Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz, who pledged earlier this year to hire 10,000 such youth by the end of 2018. Starbucks officials say they did not need to recruit to attract the dozen new companies that joined the initiative.
Participating companies certainly have pragmatic reasons to join the initiative. As the unemployment rate has dipped, the pool of workers available for entry-level jobs has shrunk. And for many companies that want to expand their footprint in urban markets, engaging disconnected youth, who are disproportionately African-American and Latino, makes business sense.
For complete article on USAToday.com, please click here.
