The Underemployed Generation
By Andrew Sum, et al have a powerful report on the underemployed generation that is today’s youth. Here’s the whole report in PDF form.
For young people with low levels of education, the employment situation is bad indeed and they have little hope of significant improvement going forward. It’s not that they can find no work necessarily, but it is a generation of underemployed people working low-wage jobs:
This report shows that America’s youth have faced a much more difficult time finding jobs throughout the 2000’s than official unemployment rates have indicated. In 2011, 43 percent of teens and 30 percent of young adults were struggling to find their place in the labor market, while the official unemployment rates were much lower at 25 percent and 15 percent respectively for these groups.
Here’s their fact sheet:
Employment rates showed a ‘Great Age Twist’ between 2000 and 2011. Individuals under age 54 were less likely to be working in 2011 than in 2000, while those 55 and over were more likely be working in 2011.
Employment rates among teens declined dramatically, from 44 percent in 2000 to 24 percent in 2011, but showed variation by educational attainment and household income.
‘Labor force underutilization’ reveals a bigger problem among teens than reflected in the official unemployment rate, and varies by race/ethnicity and educational attainment.
The share of teens with any paid employment throughout the year dropped from 55 percent in 2000 to 28 percent in 2011.
Teens with more work experience in the previous year are much more likely to find employment in the current year.
Teen employment rates vary widely among metropolitan areas.
The employment rate among young adults ages 20-24, fell from 72 percent in 2000 to 60 percent in 2011.
As with teens, labor force underutilization rates are much higher than the official unemployment rate, and vary by race/ethnicity and educational attainment.
The share of young adults with any paid employment in a given year dropped from 82 percent in 2000 to 69 percent in 2011.
Young adults with work experience in the previous year and higher levels of education are much more likely find employment.
Young adult employment rates vary widely among metropolitan areas, although not as much as teen employment rates.
As always, you should read the whole thing, etc.