I wish guys like Nassiem Ordonez all the best. At least he's trying and organizations like CSS, JobsFirstNYC and Phipps Neighborhoods are trying to help. God bless them.
"New Yorkers like 22-year-old Nassiem Ordonez live with the consequences. Raised in the South Bronx primarily by his grandmother, he dropped out of school in the ninth grade and since then has worked only for short periods of time — off the books and low paying jobs, mostly in factories.
“My father wasn’t in my life at the time and I had no one to show me how to find a job when I started looking at 14,” he said.
Ordonez is getting the kind of help CSS and JobsFirstNYC envision. He’s enrolling in a program at Phipps Neighborhoods next month where he hopes to earn a GED degree. In addition to providing schooling in the morning, Phipps will help him with a subsidized job in the afternoon to help make ends meet. And it will provide other skills, Ordonez said, “showing me the proper way to conduct myself professionally at interviews.
If all goes well, he hopes to become an EMT for the city".
https://www.thecity.nyc/work/2022/2/...ove-15-percent
One in five Black New Yorkers is either officially unemployed, stuck in a part-time job when they want full-time work, or so discouraged they are not even looking for employment — suffering the worst job hits of the pandemic recession.
While Black unemployment is historically higher than that for other groups and harder hit by economic downturns, the data this time is more worrisome, according to new research from New School economist James Parrott.
It shows that while white joblessness declined steadily last year, Black unemployment dipped only slightly and rose toward the end of the year.
There is no consensus about the reasons the pandemic recession is worse for Black New Yorkers or even which parts of communities have been affected the most, in part because the available data isn’t detailed enough. But the dire numbers are spurring concern.
“This is a startling trend that the city and state must take seriously and address,” said David Jones, president of the Community Service Society of New York, an anti-poverty policy nonprofit.
“The Black community has taken severe economic blows throughout the pandemic, from job loss, death, health tragedies, and beyond. And COVID’s impact on remote schooling for Black youth will be felt for decades.”
New Mayor Eric Adams vows he will deal with what many call a crisis, although he has yet to announce any far-reaching measures to do so. Similarly, Gov. Kathy Hochul has had little to say on the subject.
JobsFirstNYC, which works to improve the economic prospects for young New Yorkers, found that in the pandemic 18- to 24-year-olds in New York City are 35% more likely to have lost work than all other workers. The group’s analysis after the 2008 recession also showed that age group was concentrated in food service and retail and low-paying health care positions. All three industries have been devastated by the pandemic.
CEO Marjorie Parker also notes that a large number of young people, especially those of color, have left school. This adds to the unemployment rate because students are not counted in the workforce — but those who leave school become either unemployed or discouraged workers.
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I'm not denying that there is racism and that does impede Blacks from progressing, but the idea that they are essentially "doomed" without help from the government is absurd. The main obstacle facing Blacks is a lack of education. Yes, I'm well aware of job and housing discrimination and lower pay for jobs that Blacks may be qualified for the same as a White person, but that does not mean that it's impossible for Blacks to succeed as you're implying. It just means it's harder, but it's also harder for other minority groups.
