What Employers Want: Employer Perspectives on Youth, the Youth Labor Market, and Prospects for a National System of Youth Apprenticeships. EQW Working Papers WP22.

Employer attitudes toward youth, the youth labor market, and prospects for a national system of youth apprenticeships were studied through a survey of firms that had participated in local youth apprenticeship or cooperative education programs in seven U.S. cities and focus group discussions with small and large employers in eight U.S. communities. The studies established that the period between completing school and obtaining a good job is getting longer, the link between formal schooling and work is becoming more tenuous, and employers (especially small firms) are generally wary of any policy initiative designed to encourage the hiring and training of new workers. Employers were reluctant to initiate youth apprenticeship programs given the present labor surplus/job shortage. They generally felt that youths lack discipline, good work attitudes, and communication skills and that schools do not prepare youth for employment. Screening was employers' dominant concern regarding participation in a youth apprenticeship program. Focusing national attention on the absence of good jobs for young people and emphasizing flexibility in any policies developed were concluded to be the keys to improving the school-to-work transition. (MN)