Teenage Unemployment in US / A tragedy

Our 7.3 percent overall unemployment rate is painfully high. But for younger Americans — particularly young minorities — things are much worse. More than one in seven between age 16 and 24 can’t find any job, full or part-time. For African Americans in that age group, it’s more than one in four. These bleak statistics actually understate the tragedy, since they don’t count those who simply stopped looking for work.

All of them deserve an opportunity to pursue their dreams and become contributing members of our society. But they are being denied by public policies that discourage young people from pursuing jobs and employers from creating them…

The long term damage caused by this lack of employment is very large. Income mobility has declined. The sad fact is the probability of people at the bottom moving up the income ladder is lower than it was 20 and 30 years ago. Many studies have demonstrated that three factors determine most of the difference between those who start in poverty and stay there and those who don’t – finishing high school; avoiding becoming a teenage parent, and getting a full-time job. Those who do all three have only a 2 percent chance of living in poverty and a 75 percent chance of joining the middle class.

Chosen excerpts by Job Market Monitor. Read the whole story at 

via The tragedy of teenage unemployment – Economics – AEI.