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Statement by the President on Announcing the Youth Opportunity Campaign.

May 22, 1965

NEXT MONTH, in June, when school is out, over 2 million American boys and girls--16 through 21 years old--will look for work and won't be able to find it.

Some of these 2 million will be looking only for temporary summer jobs. But getting those jobs may be the difference between being able to go back to school or not going back. I think it is good for America to put boys and girls to work in the summer when they really want to work--and bad for them when they are denied the chance. Almost a million of these young Americans will be trying to find their places in life, trying to become independent, self-sufficient.

This situation is more serious this year than ever before.

--This is the year most of the "post-war baby crop" of the late 1940's is entering the labor force.

--Half of our unemployment next month will be in this 16 through 21 year old group.

Last month I asked the Vice President to chair a Cabinet Committee on Employment, consisting of Secretaries McNamara, Connor, and Wirtz and NASA Administrator Webb. From their deliberations, recommendations have been made to me and I now am announcing a special Youth Opportunity Campaign.

We can, in my judgment, increase by at least half a million the work and training opportunities this summer for these boys and girls--in a way that is good for them and good business for all of us.

A. The Federal Government's Role

I am directing the Government departments and agencies to make every effort to find meaningful work or training opportunities this summer for one extra trainee for every 100 employees on their present payrolls.

--This is to be done, for the most part, in the field offices and installations around the country.

--These opportunities will be given, so far as this is practicable, to boys and girls through 21 who need them the most because of economic or educational disadvantages.

--There is a potential employment here of 25,000 trainees.

I am also directing a reallocation of Economic Opportunity Act funds to permit an extension of the Neighborhood Youth Corps program this summer to an additional 50,000 boys and girls.

--Programs covering more than this number have already been submitted by local government and private nonprofit organizations in all of the States.

I am asking the Governor of each of the 50 States, and the mayor of each city with a population of over 10,000, to consider whether a trainee employment program like the one we are working out for the Federal Government will be possible and practicable. One percent of the number of their employees would be 30,000.

B. The Private Employer's Role

I hope and believe that private employers will cooperate in this program.

--There are 620,000 firms in this country which employ from 10 to 100 workers. I hope that at least half of these firms will agree to take on one extra summer trainee.

--There are 60,000 larger plants, employing over 25 million people. If each of them will add one extra summer trainee for each 100 employees, this will mean another 250,000.

I hope other large organizations--labor unions, trade associations, churches, colleges-will make a similar effort. This could mean another 25,000 to 50,000 trainees.

This program will be worthwhile only if it means extra work-training opportunities, over and above those which would normally be offered. It would be worthless, or worse, if this program only replaced regular employment opportunities.

C. Task Force Appointment

I am asking the Vice President to chair a task force to work out the details of this program. This task force will include representatives of the U.S. Department of Commerce, the U.S. Department of Labor, State and local governments, and business and labor organizations.

D. Immediate Action Proposals

In the meantime, and so this program can get started immediately, I am asking that these things be done:

1. That all private employers who are disposed to do so make their own arrangements immediately for taking on one or more extra trainees this summer.

If advice of this action, including the name of the trainee, is given by mail to the Secretary of Commerce, Youth Opportunity Campaign Unit, Washington, D.C., it will be appropriately acknowledged.

2. That all other private employers and organizations who are willing to cooperate in this program so advise the nearest State employment office.

3. That all State employment offices be advised, through the U.S. Employment Service, to establish special youth opportunity registers for this special summer program.

4. That all boys and girls 16 through 21 who want to work this summer and who don't have jobs get in touch immediately with the nearest employment service office. If this is difficult, write to the Department of Labor, Youth Opportunity Campaign Unit, Washington, D.C.

It must be clear that we cannot and do not assure all boys and girls work this summer.

We will do the best we can.

In the depression of the 1930's we gave hundreds of thousands of boys and girls this kind of extra chance through the National Youth Administration. We acted then from the desperation born of national economic distress.

I ask that today, at the height of our prosperity, we act with equal magnificence.

A boy or girl who wants a chance to work and who is denied it costs this country what it cannot afford.

This is only one part of the broader attempt to assure full employment opportunity in America.

The 16-to-21-year-old group will represent, however, half of our unemployment next month.

This is a special problem resulting from the entry into the work force this year of so many of the "post-war baby crop." It demands special attention.

Lyndon B. Johnson, Statement by the President on Announcing the Youth Opportunity Campaign. Online by Gerhard Peters and John T. Woolley, The American Presidency Project https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/node/241423

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