Youth rally for employment opportunities

LYNN – Dragging balls and chains and waving handmade signs, a Lynn youth group took to the steps of City Hall Thursday, imploring local businesses to consider hiring teens.”The ball and chain represents what we’re being held down by,” said Lynn Youth Organizing Network member Guelmi Espinal. “It’s different for everybody.”The 17-year-old Lynn Vocational Technical Institute junior said that, for him, the weight around his ankle represents being a Spanish teen.”I believe people have preconceived notions of us,” he said. “People think we’re lazy, good-for-nothing, bottom-of-the-barrel type.”Espinal said he’s been looking for a job off and on since he was 15 but kicked his search into high gear once he turned 17.View a photo galleryHe understands in some cases he is competing with adults still mired in a bad economy, but he argues that he will be an adult one day soon and needs job experience in order to get a better job down the road.Network supervisor Hazel Johnson said the teens launched the jobs campaign last year but focused namely on securing state funding for companies in order to hire teens. This year the group is switching gears and trying to engage the local businesses to actually offer jobs, she said.She called the rally, “our warning shot.”Johnson’s research with the Center for Labor Market Studies at Northeastern University showed that youth jobs have fallen during the recession to the lowest recorded level in decades. In 2000 nearly 45 percent of teens held jobs but by 2012 the number dropped to 28 percent.She is concerned about youths becoming tied down by low-wage jobs as well.”We plan to talk to businesses in the healthcare sector, manufacturing ? businesses that have pathways to really good career opportunities for these kids to step onto a path that will bring them out of poverty,” she said.Richard McIntosh, 16, said he filled out a lot of job applications before landing a job at Monte’s Restaurant. He marched to support his friends.”I was told I wasn’t qualified,” he said. “I would ask them, ?how can be qualified if you won’t give me a chance?’ But they just kept saying I wasn’t qualified at all. It’s a big loop.”Kera Warren, 16 and a junior at the vo-tech, has worked at Stop & Shop for a year and a half but she understands the struggles faced by her friends.”We want businesses to start looking at teens as not all bad,” she said.Monica Meas marched in the cold, gray afternoon light jacket-less, dragging her ball and chain, chanting “youth jobs now” and wearing a sign that read, “I need a job.””I am warmed by the spirit,” she quipped. “Our goal is to raise 100 new youth jobs in Lynn.”And she hopes one is for her. The 17-year-old Lynn Classical High School junior said she has applied for numerous jobs but has failed to receive even a return phone call.”I think it’s because of my age and because I’m from Lynn,” she said.Meas said she feels students in Swampscott have more opportunities because, despite the closeness of the two communities, Swampscott has a better image.”It’s hard to fight that,” she said.Warren said it’s important for businesses to understand that teens from all over have something to offer.”Teens are good,” she said. “You just need to give us a break.”Chris Stevens can be reached at [email protected].