America’s 10 Million Unemployed Youth Spell Danger for Future Economic Growth

“The slow economic recovery has hit America’s youngest workers especially hard, and while the unemployment rate has fallen from its peak, more than 10 million young people under the age of 25 are not fully employed. This brief provided policymakers with a detailed understanding of just who these young Americans were so that they could begin to develop and enact smart, targeted policy interventions to put these young Americans back to work and address the youth-unemployment crisis head on” (p.6). (Abstractor: Author)

“2.5 million teens are out of work or underemployed” (p.3). • “Nearly 300,000 are employed part time but are seeking full-time work” (p.3). • “Another 728,000 teenagers are enrolled in school but are unemployed and actively seeking employment. Members of this group could include a 16-year-old high school student looking for an afterschool job at the mall, or a 19-year-old single mother who needs a full-time job during the day while attending community college at night” (p.3) • “1.4 million teens...are neither enrolled in school nor working” (p.3). About half of disconnected teens have dropped out of high school without making the transition to a job. Another half have completed high school but have not been able to translate their education into work or further schooling. These facts suggest that addressing unemployment among teens may require efforts to keep teens in school, as well as measures to improve the transition from high school to employment and training (p.3). “8.2 million workers ages 20 to 24 are out of work or underemployed” (p.4) • “The largest group of unemployed young adults are disconnected. This includes both those young adults who are unemployed and searching for a job, as well as those who have dropped out of the labor force” (p.4). • “The majority of these disconnected young adults do not have a college education” (p.4). “College graduates are underemployed and in debt” (p.5) • “The unemployment rates among college graduates under the age of 30 are high relative to older college graduates. The unemployment rate for the youngest college graduates is 7.4 percent—twice the unemployment rate for college graduates in their 30s and early 40s” (p.5). • “Half of all college graduates are working a job that requires less than a four-year degree” (p.5) • “Student debt in America has ballooned to more than $1 trillion, and one in four student-loan borrowers is delinquent on their loans” (p.5). (Abstractor: Author and Website Staff)

• Last Updated:
• Created:
• Resource Publication Date: 2013
• Author(s): Ayres, Sarah
• Organizational Author(s): Center for American Progress
• Funding Source: Funding source not identified
• Resource Availability: Publicly available
• Posted by: Wesley Peterson
• Posted in: Workforce System Strategies