US Youth Joblessness Now At Nearly 14%

Generation Opportunity, a national, non-partisan youth advocacy organization, is announcing its Millennial Jobs Report for March 2015. The data is non-seasonally adjusted (NSA) and is specific to 18-29-year-olds: The effective (U-6) unemployment rate for 18-29-year-olds, which adjusts for labor force participation by including those who have given up looking for work, is 13.9 percent (NSA). The (U-3) unemployment rate for 18-29 year olds is 9.1 percent (NSA). The declining labor force participation rate has created an additional 1.842 million young adults that are not counted as “unemployed” by the U.S. Department of Labor because they are not in the labor force, meaning that those young people have given up looking for work due to the lack of jobs. The effective (U-6) unemployment rate for 18-29-year-old African-Americans is 20.2 percent (NSA); the (U-3) unemployment rate is 16 percent (NSA). The effective (U-6) unemployment rate for 18-29-year-old Hispanics is 14.3 percent (NSA); the (U-3) unemployment rate is 9.4 percent (NSA). The effective (U-6) unemployment rate for 18-29-year-old women is 11.8 percent (NSA); the (U-3) unemployment rate is 8.1 percent (NSA). Evan Feinberg, President of Generation Opportunity, issued the following statement:  “Today’s underwhelming jobs numbers and the stagnant youth unemployment rate paint a clear picture of a generation held back from realizing our full potential.   “Despite our best efforts to create and innovate, our generation runs into government obstacles at every turn, like proposals to tax the Internet and over-regulate emerging industries like ridesharing.   “As we continue to fight back from the Recession, we ask our representatives in Congress and state capitols across the country to fight for policies that allow us to achieve what’s possible: achieving prosperity while making our nation a better place for everyone.”