Assignment #15 Part c
1. -One in four Americans ages 16 to 19 were unemployed in February.
-The teen jobless rate climbed from 23.2 to 23.8 percent.
-According to a 1995 National Bureau of Economic Research working paper, high school seniors employed 20 hours per week were, 6 to 9 years later, expected to earn approximately 11 percent more annually than their counterparts who did not work.
-The February unemployment rate for Hispanics age 16 to 19 was 27.5 percent.
-The February unemployment rate for African Americans ages 16 to 19 was more than one-third, at 34.7 percent.
-The national teen unemployment rate has been above 20 percent since mid-2008.
Although this isn’t necessarily shocking, I find it really upsetting. I would assume that during a recession, less teens would be employed since jobs become harder to get and therefore most of them are filled with overqualified adults, yet it is really sad because jobs and experience are necessary for teens. It is also sad that it has maintained this way for so many years. Hopefully in the future things will get better and the unemployment rate will decrease.
2. Some effects of teen unemployment are less experience in professional spaces, less earnings in the future compared to a teen who was employed, and less responsible.
3. “One way to ensure work for America’s young people is to keep the minimum wage low, says Michael Saltsman, a research fellow at the Employment Policies Institute…”
“boosting teen employment may simply be question of getting more people back to work overall.”
“Increasing the minimum wage, she says, tends to get money into the hands of people who really need it, and are more likely to spend it. ‘It actually increases economic activity and generates some jobs…’”
This article is a hit of reality. Although it sucks, it’s the way it is, especially as finding jobs as an adult is so difficult. Hopefully things will turn around and people of all ages will be able to find jobs when they need them, but as of now, if your’e a teen, it is very tough.
