UPS to offer 1,500 jobs through Obama youth employment initiative

UPS has pledged to offer 1,500 employment opportunities to low-income and unemployed young people across the United States during the coming summer. The parcel shipping giant is one of the private sector organisations backing President Obama’s Summer Jobs+ initiative, which launched today seeking to provide experience in the jobs market for as many as 250,000 people aged 16-24 in 2012.

While many of the positions stemming from the White House initiative will be voluntary or internships, UPS told Post&Parcel it would be offering paid employment, starting off at part-time rates of $8.50-$9.50 an hour.

Positions will be available in 71 UPS centres within 35 states across the country, the company said.

Spokesperson Kara Ross also said that while the initiative as a whole was seeking to provide employment for the summer, the UPS jobs would not be just for the summer.

“The Department of Labor’s initiative is focused on summer jobs, but ours are not, ours can go on and they are eligible to become full-time and move up to become supervisory employees as well,” she said.

The UPS spokesperson added that the new employees will also be eligible to receive employment benefits and assistance for any education or training they receive, via the UPS educational assistance programme, which can pay up to $3,000 a year for educational benefits.

The White House initiative comes as a growing proportion of young people in America find themselves out of work.

Department of Labor figures suggest just 48.8% of US people between the ages of 16 and 24 were in employment last July, compared with 59.2% five years ago and 63.3% 10 years ago.

Launching the Summer Jobs+ initiative today, President Obama said: “America’s young people face record unemployment, and we need to do everything we can to make sure they’ve got the opportunity to earn the skills and a work ethic that come with a job.”