Our conversation with Jeannine La Prad
A new study finds there are many challenges to Detroit residents accessing job opportunities.
The report, Detroit’s Untapped Talent: Jobs and On-Ramps Needed, was commissioned by JP Morgan Chase and Company and was compiled by Corporation for a Skilled Workforce.
Jeannine La Prad helped prepare the report.
La Prad says the Detroit unemployment rate is chronically twice that of the statewide unemployment rate. She found that factor has been compounded by an insufficient number of jobs in Detroit, a mismatch between the skills and educational requirements for what jobs are available, and a lack of support structures like childcare and reliable transportation.
“The bottom line is there is no silver bullet here, and this is a complex set of factors that are underpinning the level of unemployment that we’re seeing and the labor force participation rates.
"It really is going to be critical that every organization, every program, every provider in the city, whether it be from the educational perspective, the workforce development perspective, the human service, social service perspective, we all really take a closer look at what it is we’re doing and how is it that collectively we might be able to better align our resources, our programs, our strategies so that this more holistic, more comprehensive approach could be taken,” La Prad says.
Jeannine La Prad tells us more about the study’s findings in our conversation above.
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