Are you hiring this summer?

I think we can all remember our first job, and the sense of dignity and pride that came with that first paycheck.

Summer jobs help teach us about what’s possible, both in terms of careers to explore (and those we’d rather avoid) and also in terms of what we are truly capable of. Summer jobs also provide young people with the skills they need to be successful in the workplace, and inspire them to reach for more… I know mine did.

That’s why in January, President Obama announced the Summer Jobs+ initiative and called on businesses, non-profits and governments to come together to provide 250,000 employment opportunities for low-income and disconnected youth in the summer of 2012.

Across the country, employers big and small -- from Gap Inc., to Southwire, to the Boys & Girls Club of Green Bay -- are working with their communities to provide jobs, internships, mentoring opportunities or other life and work skills development for our young people.

As part of this effort, later this month the Department of Labor will launch the Summer Jobs+ Bank - a brand new online resource for young people to find jobs, internships, mentorship or training opportunities this summer.

Is your company or organization looking to hire young people? Does your organization have mentorship or training opportunities for youth?  If so, we want YOU to be a part of the Summer Jobs+ Bank. Adding your opportunities to the Summer Jobs+ Bank is easy and will help you connect with youth in your area looking for opportunities this summer.

Whether you already post jobs on your company website, use a job board like Internships.com or Aftercollege.Com, or are looking to post summer opportunities online for the first time, there’s an easy way to get involved.

1.) “Tag” your jobs.
By adding just a few lines of code to existing online postings, or using one of our partners to do it for you, you can get involved… and we hope you will. How you add those few lines of code depends on how and where your opportunities are posted online. If all of that seems too hard, you can always use one of our partners to do the work for you.

• Post your opportunities via AfterCollege.Com
  • If you have fewer than 30 opportunities available, visit the special AfterCollege.com Summer Jobs+ Page and click on "Get Started" to add your summer opportunities.
  • If you have 30 or more opportunities contact cs@aftercollege.com with your organization name, number of jobs being committed and contact information for the relevant point of contact in your organization. Please include "SummerJobs+" in the subject line. Please Also indicate the career website/URL where AfterCollege can find and scrape your summer jobs and internships
• Post your opportunities via Internships.com
  • If you have fewer than 30 opportunities available, visit Internships.com  to sign up and post your opportunities. They will automatically be tagged and incorporated.
  • If you have 30 or more opportunities available, email slander@internships.com to get started.
• Post your opportunities via LinkedIn.com
  • If you have fewer than 30 opportunities, you can post them for free to LinkedIn.com by visiting their special student jobs page.  Once you’ve posted your opportunities, they will be automatically tagged and included in the Summer Jobs+ Bank.

2.) Let us know you're done!

This last step is important! Once you've posted your opportunity online and tagged it appropriately, let us know so we can be sure to add your job posting to the Summer Jobs+ Bank. Email us to let us know when you've posted your opportunities.

3.) Questions?

If you have any questions about adding your opportunities to the Summer Jobs+ Bank, don't hesitate to ask.  Shoot an email to summerjobs@dol.gov.  

Still not sure what to do?  Check out this video for step by step instructions on how to add your job, internship or other opportunities to the Summer Jobs+ Bank.