Just the news that young people want to hear: their retirement-age grandparents are more likely to be employed than they are.
According to The Wall Street Journal, a 16- or 17-year-old boy is currently less likely to be employed than his 70-year-old grandfather, when just a decade ago, a boy of that same age would be twice as likely to have a job as Grandpa.
And it’s the current state of the economy that’s likely the biggest factor.
“Kids are at the bottom of the labor queue, so if you don’t get a strong recovery it just doesn’t reach down to kids,” said Paul Harrington, a Drexel University professor, told WSJ.
During the recession, all age groups suffered decreased employment rates, but youth continue to struggle, even during a period of gradual recovery. WSJ also reported that less than one third of young adults 16 to 19-year-olds had jobs this summer, about the same amount as last year at this time. But prior to the recession, 40 percent of that age group had summer jobs.
Admittedly, there are other factors in play. Many Americans are entering the workforce later than their peers in previous decades, perhaps because there’s less incentive to get a job young or because they’re spending their free time on other activities, such as sports. The increasing college enrollment rate also plays a part, as young Americans chose education over an immediate entry into the workforce after high school. And workers are also remaining in the workforce longer that any other point in history, WSJ noted.
But the main reason youth are still being hit so hard is fairly simple: for those at the bottom of the employment totem pole, a weak economic recovery means they’re still struggling to find work, even while the Obama administration lauds the decreasing unemployment rate for most Americans.
