Competition fierce for jobs

Posted: Monday, May 28, 2012 8:00 pm

NASHVILLE (AP) — With federal stimulus funds drying up, the availability of summer jobs in Middle Tennessee will be limited.
That means there will be more competition for jobs that usually go to teens and young adults with little or no real working experience.
South Central Tennessee Workforce Alliance executive director Jan McKeel told The Tennessean (http://tnne.ws/LsY0p9) that the organization isn’t able to hire as many youths as it used to.
“Three years ago we were able to put 900 kids to work in our Summer Youth Program as part of the (federal) stimulus program,” she said. “But we went from 900 jobs to 50 the next year as that money went away. And we have been challenged as a public workforce system to continue to fund summer youth jobs.”
Nashville Career Advancement Center official Ellen Zinkiewicz says it’s not all bad news.
“As we come out of the recession, we have kids who we didn’t expect to see working that now have jobs, and more kids are finding employment on their own, which is great,” she said.

Published in The Messenger 5.28.12