The United States should provide all young people entering the work force with opportunities to develop productive careers. Despite that fact, the nation's schools fail to equip many young people with appropriate skills, the job market often fails to link them to long-term advancement-oriented employment, and their communities often provide few role models of adult employment success. These problems are particularly acute in the nation's inner cities. The following are among the actions that communities, schools, and employers can take to create a more favorable environment and employment in inner cities: provide prenatal/postnatal health care, parenting education, developmentally oriented preschool programs, and health/social services for students and their families; initiate gun and drug control measures; establish higher educational standards; improve teacher quality; increase schools' use of information technology; strengthen school-based management; expand charter schools and public school choice; increase employee recruiting through inner city schools and other community-based sources of job referrals; provide student internships for inner city job seekers; use school transcripts and teacher recommendations when making hiring decisions; and expand "diversity management" initiatives to enhance the retention and productivity of employees from diverse demographic backgrounds; and redesign career ladders to provide workers with initial access at younger ages. (MN)