Hundreds of jobs for young people were not available this summer, as the state failed to pass a budget in time to fund its Summer Youth Employment Program. But some local organizations stepped up to make some of those jobs available.
Several of the regional programs found money elsewhere to hire young people for work. Capital Workforce Partners in Hartford was able to fill half of its 1,200 youth jobs, thanks to support from the city and area nonprofits.
The same was true for eastern Connecticut.
A group called EASTCONN runs the program there, and it was able to find jobs for 150 students with money from nonprofits, a state agency, and a federal workforce program. If the state had passed a budget, another 250 students might have been employed, according to a spokesperson who cited annual averages.
Over in Bridgeport, the area job center usually serves about 300 youth with state-funded jobs, but was able to get 115 of those funded through other sources.
In the Waterbury area, job prospects for youth remained grim. The American Job Center there, which serves 41 towns and cities, wasn't able to fill any of the roughly 650 youth jobs that the state usually pays for.
