The February employment report surpassed expectations as the economy added 227,000 jobs. However, the steadily improving conditions encouraged more people to start looking for work again, thereby holding the unemployment rate steady at 8.3% (The government only counts people as unemployed if they look for work so more people joining the labor force can lead to higher unemployment). Young Americans saw slight gains, though not as much everyone else.

The jobless rate for those ages 16 to 24 jumped to 16.5% from 16% in January, suggesting a step backward, though, a closer analysis shows the opposite. Young workers actually found an additional 40,000 found jobs in February meaning that youth employment improved slightly. Buoyed by the good news, over 75,000 workers ages 16 to 24 rushed into the labor force, explaining the unemployment rate spike.

The picture for young Latinos is much worse as their unemployment rate rose from 16.9% to 19.1%. Tens of thousands of them joined the labor force, but few found work. Young African Americans ages 16 to 24 continue have the hardest time with an unemployment rate at a shocking 26%.

Over the last several months, the overall trends remain positive.  Since February of 2011 young people under 24 have found more than 500,000 jobs while their unemployment rate fell 1.1%.  Nevertheless our generation still has a long way to go. We remain nearly a million jobs below our employment peak in December 2007 before the recession began.