Massachusetts Teens March for More Youth Jobs

BOSTON/State House - Over 1,000 teenagers and youth advocates from across Massachusetts marched from Copley Square to the State House on Thursday to lobby for more funding for youth jobs in the Fiscal Year 2012 Mass. state budget. Gov. Deval Patrick, several legislators and business leaders addressed the marchers at a rally in Gardiner Auditorium. Patrick called both for more funding for youth jobs in the upcoming budget and for the private sector to do its part to hire more young people - especially in the summer time when young people are out of school.

Photos by Jason Pramas

The event was organized by the Youth Jobs Coalition - a consortium of youth advocacy organizations from around the Commonwealth. The organizers handed out a report by Northeastern Univeristy's Center for Labor Market Studies that stated there was a drastic drop in the percentage of teens that held jobs between 1999 and 2010. Over 54 percent of young Bay Staters had jobs in 1999 while just under 30 percent had jobs last year. Patrick has asked for increases to youth jobs funding in both the House 1 FY 2012 budget and the Supplemental Budget. The fate of the proposed increases now lies with the legislature.

This article is a news brief.