For anyone who has ever lived next door to a house that’s being built, the constant pounding of hammers can be downright annoying.

With each new nail, a small portion of the listener’s nerves can get splintered.

But for a group of nearly two dozen local youth, each blow of a hammer puts them an inch closer to the likelihood of finding a new, solid career path.

The Youth Build program is a national program sponsored by the Department of Labor.

It aims at giving low-income and disadvantaged youth a chance to learn real-world, on-the-job construction skills.

The goal is to prepare the youth to be ready to enter the job market or continue their educations.

While the Youth Build members’ labor and sweat is expended on the hands-on construction project — in Natchez it’s a Habitat for Humanity house — the real labor goes on in the hearts and minds of the participants.

As local Youth Build Construction Manager John Evans said recently, “More than anything we are teaching these students work ethic.”

And as many business owners will tell you finding someone who is not afraid to put a hard day’s work in is probably 50 percent or more of the battle to find good help.

Youth Build seems to be hitting the nail on the head of the problems that are facing these young people. So hammer away and help them become more effective in their adult lives.