The March unemployment numbers were released today. The economic situation for young people remains lackluster, with youth unemployment hovering at around 12 percent.
Believe it or not, the unemployment statistics would actually be a lot worse, except for the fact that millions of young people have actually stopped looking for work, and they aren’t counted in the official unemployment figures.
According to a press release from the non-profit interest group, Generation Opportunity:
- The youth unemployment rate for 18-29 year olds specifically for March 2013 is 11.7 percent (NSA).
- The declining labor force participation rate has created an additional 1.7 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.
- If the labor force participation rate were factored into the 18-29 youth unemployment calculation, the actual 18-29-unemployment rate would rise to 16.2 percent (NSA).
Generation Opportunity president, Evan Feinberg, commented on the latest job numbers. “After years of deficit spending and government meddling in the economy, 1 in 6 of us don’t have a job. Half of us are doing no better than a part-time job. All the while, we are all stuck with a bill that keeps getting bigger. It’s like we’re the last one to leave the bar and everybody else ran out without paying their tab.”
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