The federal government reported employment numbers for March this morning, but as usual, the plight of young Americans received little attention. We’ll tell their story here.

Nationally the unemployment rate remained essentially unchanged last month, falling from 8.9 to 8.8 percent while the economy added over 200,000 jobs. Overall, unemployment has fallen by a full percentage point since November 2010.

Of course, young people continue to have a much tougher time finding a job than everyone else. The unemployment rate for 16-24 year olds edged down to 17.6 percent, still twice the national average. On a positive note, more young people found jobs last month, but so many more started looking for work that the unemployment rate didn’t change much.

Older young adults did better. Those ages 25-34 saw their unemployment rate fall from 9.4 to 9.1 percent. That adds up to a drop of 1.3 percent since last November. Even at this rate, however, older young adults have a long way to climb to escape the Great Recession’s hole. And with more than 1 in 6 out of a job, the youngest working Americans continue to struggle to find a foothold.