More applicants and more employers have signed up to participate in this summer’s youth work program.

Right now 180 young people have applied for the program where they will be placed with a local employer earning $9 an hour at no cost to that employer. That is about a 20 percent increase over last year’s numbers, the first time the DJFS took over the program.

“(Applications) are still coming in,” Gene Myers, director of the county job and family services, said. “Out of the 180 we had to deny about 30 of them.”

There are three main criteria to join the program. Applicants have to be between the ages of 16 through 24, be below 200 percent of the poverty level and have a minor child in the family. That minor child can be the prospective worker.

Right now the county has $338,000 to spend on the youth’s wages.

“If we run short on our money, we can request more,” Myers said. “That doesn’t mean we will get it.”

The goal of the program is to teach young people responsibility in the workplace, including showing up to a job on time and following the instructions of an employer.

Work schedules start on June 1 and could extend through October.