Starbucks Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Howard Schultz and his wife Sheri are promising $30 million for a new youth workforce initiative aimed at hiring over 100,000 young people over the next three years.
The initiative, which is led by more than a dozen companies across the country, seeks to address the high unemployment rate for youth. JP Morgan Chase, Macy's, Target and Walmart are all part of the program, TIME reports. It will begin with a large employment fair Aug. 13 in Chicago.
"This is not charity. It solves a real business problem: According to one study, one-third of employers surveyed have trouble filling open positions because of talent shortages, and 43 percent say those shortages hurt their business," the couple wrote in a New York Times editorial.
Spotify has revealed plans for a subscription service and branding deal with Starbucks that provides free playlists to several locations, while promoting registration for the streaming application.
The multiyear partnership will allow customers and employees to select songs played at Starbucks locations, the New York Times reports. It will begin later this fall at over 7,000 venues across the United States.
"By connecting Spotify's world-class streaming platform into our world-class store and digital ecosystem, we are reinventing the way our millions of global customers discover music," company official Howard Schultz said in a statement, according to the site.
"We're really making the barista the D.J. here," Spotify official Daniel Ek said.
Starbucks was established in 1971.
