12 major companies join Starbucks 100,000 youth jobs push
A dozen major U.S. companies, including Chipotle Mexican Grill, FedEx, and Prudential, joined a Starbucks-led coalition on Tuesday, pledging to help create 100,000 jobs for unemployed youth by the end of 2018.
They join 17 other big U.S. companies that launched the 100,000 Opportunities Initiative last month, an effort that seeks to jump start the future of some of the 5.5 million Americans, ages 16 to 24, who are neither in school nor employed. Demographers and economists refer to the group as "disconnected youth."
Other companies that announced Tuesday they signed on include Domino’s, Hyatt, Mars, Nordstrom, Pizza Hut, Red Robin, Sweetgreen and T-Mobile.
“We felt it was our responsibility, and privilege, to join the 100,000 Opportunities Initiative to help provide young people with the tools and know-how to get job ready,” Pizza Hut CEO David Gibbs said.
The push to take on the yawning problem of youth unemployment is spearheaded by Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz, who pledged earlier this year to hire 10,000 such youth by the end of 2018. Starbucks officials say they did not need to recruit to attract the dozen new companies that joined the initiative.
Participating companies certainly have pragmatic reasons to join the initiative. As the unemployment rate has dipped, the pool of workers available for entry-level jobs has shrunk. And for many companies that want to expand their footprint in urban markets, engaging disconnected youth, who are disproportionately African-American and Latino, makes business sense.
At the same time, companies have become more aware of the need to address the disconnected youth problem, because of the impact it's having on American communities, said Blair Taylor, Starbucks chief community officer. Taxpayers spent roughly $26.8 billion in 2013 on incarceration, Medicaid, public assistance and Supplemental Security Income payments associated with disconnected youth, according to the Social Science Research Council.
"Companies that have heard about this are now calling us to be part of this coalition," Taylor told USA TODAY. "If you roll back the clock five to 10 years, I don't know if this coalition would have come together in the same way."
Schultz has been outspoken in his call to shareholders about the need for the coffee company to embrace social responsibility, and taken on hot-button issues including same-sex marriage and gun control in in the past. Earlier this year, the coffee chain launched a short-lived campaign in which it encouraged baristas to talk to customers about race relations.
The coffee chain executive’s family foundation has honed in on the issue of youth disconnection as its central philanthropic cause.
“We know that this is a complex issue and we need all of our collective horsepower to solve it,” said Sheri Schultz, the cofounder of the Schultz Family Foundation and wife of the Starbucks CEO. “For too long, it’s been the non-profit and public sectors tackling this issue, without meaningful involvement from the private sector."
Most of the 29 companies that have joined the initiative have also agreed to take part in a series of job and training fairs planned for cities across the country. The first one takes place on Aug. 13 in Chicago, which counts more than 200,000 youth who aren't in school or have jobs. Participating companies say they plan to make hundreds of on-the-spot job offers.
Alaska Airlines, Cintas, CVS Health, Hilton Worldwide, HMSHost, JCPenney, JPMorgan Chase, Lyft, Macy's, Microsoft, Porch.com, Potbelly Sandwich Shop, Taco Bell, Target, Walgreens and Walmart announced last month that would take part in the initiative.
Follow USA TODAY Chicago correspondent Aamer Madhani on Twitter @AamerISmad