What’s happening: City officials and those from JPMorgan Chase gathered at Chase’s Corktown Community Branch last week to celebrate the announcement of a new virtual call center in the city. While the announcement took place at the Corktown location, the dozens of full-time jobs created will be work-from-home positions, although onboarding, training, and face-to-face meetings will take place at the Corktown site.
About the jobs: Chase hired approximately 50 Detroiters as account specialists, collaborating with the City to find employees from historically underserved neighborhoods. Account specialists assist customers manage their financial accounts over the phone. New employees will be paid no less than $22.50 per hour and receive an annual benefits package worth approximately $16,000. Opportunities for career growth, financial wellness, and tuition assistance are also available, and new positions could be added in the future.
Why it’s important: "(Vice Chairman of JPMorgan Chase & Co.) Peter Scher and I have talked for years about creating more career opportunities, and we're thrilled that JPMorgan Chase has chosen Detroit for its new virtual call center,” Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan said with the announcement. “The potential for creating good paying American jobs is tremendous. JPMorgan Chase has played a major role in our city's comeback and has worked closely with Detroit at Work to make sure the Detroiters they are hiring are from ZIP codes we know to be among the most under-employed."
Background: As the Mayor alluded to, JPMorgan Chase has been working closely with the city since 2014, having committed $200 million in capital and philanthropic investments to support the city’s recovery from bankruptcy, help the city recover from the COVID-19 pandemic, and advance racial equity. This includes having committed $17 million to Invest Detroit for The Strategic Neighborhood Fund (SNF), offering
free financial services and coaching programs to residents, and creating
small business bootcamp and grant opportunities for Black-owned businesses, this among numerous other investments and programs.
On providing a second chance: The recent jobs announcement dovetails with JPMorgan Chase’s
Second Chance program, which aims to provide job opportunities to people with criminal backgrounds. Over the past three years, the firm has removed all questions about criminal backgrounds from their job applications and approximately 10 percent of the firm’s new hires in the United States are made through the Second Chance program.
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