FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
August 3, 2012

 Contact
Katherine Schaller
katherine.schaller@younginvincibles.org
202.534.3568

Youth Unemployment Remains High in July

[WASHINGTON, D.C.] – The Labor Department announced today that the economy added 163,000 jobs in July while the unemployment rate ticked up to 8.3 percent from 8.2 percent in June. Unfortunately, young people appear not to have benefited substantially from the gains.  Young adults ages 16 to 24 saw their unemployment rate drop slightly from 16.5% last month to 16.4% in July. In other words, the total number of youth jobs and the size of the youth labor force hasn’t changed significantly.

Young Invincibles recently released a report estimating that the economy is missing 2.7 million youth jobs that would have existed had the recession never occurred. Even under optimistic assumptions, young Americans will not make up the lost ground before 2021 and there is a real chance the youth labor market will never recover.

Rory O’Sullivan, Policy Director at Young Invincibles, said, “Young Americans are in a big hole, as youth unemployment remains very high.  Across party lines, the number one issue for young Americans is creating jobs. We need action from our leaders at every level or we risk leaving this generation further behind.”

The unemployment rate for young women ages 16 to 24 remained unchanged at 14.4 percent in July. Young men saw a slight drop from 18.4 percent to 18.2 percent. Young people of color continue to face the highest unemployment rates. African Americans ages 16 to 24 had an unemployment rate of 28.6 percent last month while young Latinos had an unemployment rate of 18.5 percent.

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 For more information visit Young Invincibles at www.younginvincibles.org. For the Young Invincibles report on the youth jobs gap, visit https://younginvincibles.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/No-End-In-Sight-7.9.12.pdf.