Job market for dropouts tougher in Hub

Young high school dropouts in Boston have a harder time finding jobs than their peers in other large cities, according to a study released yesterday by a coalition of city educational and youth groups.

At the same time, Boston students who earn a high school diploma are more likely to enter college or find work than high school graduates in other cities, the report said.

''In Boston -- more than anywhere else -- a high school diploma marks the dramatic divide between the prospect for success on one side and isolation from opportunity on the other," said the report by the Boston Youth Transitions Task Force. School department officials presented a draft of the report to the Boston School Committee last night.

Researchers blame the tougher job market for dropouts on Boston's high concentration of professional-sector jobs in technology, law, medicine, and other fields that require college degrees, while other cities have more blue-collar jobs.

Dropouts in the city also face more competition with unskilled immigrants for restaurant, construction, and cleaning jobs than in many other cities, said Andrew Sum, director of Northeastern University's Center for Labor Market Studies, which conducted the research.

''There's a lot at stake in Boston. The decisions these kids make not only affect their own lives but puts the whole city in jeopardy," Sum said.

When there are dropouts, a city pays in lost tax revenue and in the costs for social services and incarceration, Sum said. Today in Boston, more than 8,000 young adults ages 16 to 24, mostly black and Latino men, have dropped out and have not earned a GED. Boston has 65,000 young adults, excluding college students from out of town.

Boston, where nearly a third of public high school students drop out over four years, ranks 44th out of 50 large cities in terms of dropouts' ability to get work. In Boston, 30 percent of high school dropouts found work compared with 41 percent on average in other cities, according to Sum, who calculated the statistic based on 2000 US Census data. In Austin, the city with the best job prospects for dropouts, 55.5 percent found work. The employment rate among urban dropouts nationally, however, has deteriorated in recent years as the economy has worsened, he said.

National foundations paid for the coalition's two-year effort to document and address the city's dropout problem after a call by Mayor Thomas M. Menino to examine the issue in the city.

''Young people who drop out and are in the streets usually end up with some criminal charges over time," said Mariama White-Hammond, executive director of Project HIP-HOP, a Roxbury group that works with dropouts and teens at risk of quitting school. ''And that is one of the main things that's really holding them back from getting a job down the line."

Omar Jackson, 17, dropped out of the Jeremiah E. Burke High School a year and a half ago after his son was born during freshman year. Jackson, who lives in Dorchester with his grandmother, said he offered to stay home to watch the baby while his girlfriend finished school.

Jackson said he attends job training workshops and is taking classes to get his GED.

''It's all about the money, really," said Jackson, who has applied for jobs at Walgreens, Stop & Shop, and Foot Locker in recent months but has not heard back. ''Without a diploma, no one's really looking to hire you."

Young people without diplomas and jobs, Jackson said, end up ''hustling for money," including selling drugs.

On the flip side, graduates of Boston public high schools go on to college at a higher rate than high school graduates in other cities. More than 70 percent of Boston graduates in the class of 2004 attended a two- or four-year college, compared with an average of 64 percent in the 50 largest US cities.

Boston graduates also do better in the job market than their peers in other cities. Sum's study of the class of 2004 found that 51 percent of Boston high school graduates found jobs within four months, compared with an average of 38 percent of graduates from other US cities.

In light of the high stakes in Boston, the school system this year is allowing students to graduate at their own pace instead of within the traditional four years allotted for high school. A new federal grant is also paying for counselors to advise students in danger of dropping out because of multiple absences or other school failures, said Chris Coxon, deputy superintendent for teaching and learning.

Boston has been trying several tactics to keep students in school, including creating small high schools to forge better teacher-student relationships and calling dropouts and knocking on their doors to bring them back.

It will start a database to better identify and follow up with dropouts.

''Nobody has a silver bullet for this," Coxon said. ''We can start by being clear with what our data is and doing a better job at outreach to those who have left us."

Tracy Jan can be reached at tjan@globe.com.