IL HR0133

Encourages businesses to employ teens and young adults to reduce youth unemployment and prevent community decline

Documents that Illinois teen employment fell from nearly 50% in 2000 to 28% in 2012, the lowest rate in 42 years of available data

Notes that 92% of Chicago's African-American male teens were unemployed, with only 6% of low-income African-American teens employed compared to 13% of Hispanics and 25% of White males from similar backgrounds

Identifies youth employment as a strategy to prevent violence, keep students in school, reduce high school dropout rates, and decrease juvenile delinquency and teen pregnancy

Asserts that high youth unemployment costs governments an estimated $25 billion annually in lost tax revenue and increased welfare and unemployment insurance expenses