| WASHINGTON
- July 8 - Joblessness among America's youth rose to 59.1% in June, according to a Children's Defense Fund analysis of data released last week by the U.S. Department of Labor. This is the highest June jobless rate for youth in the 55 years that data have been reported and the highest ever for a summer month. Joblessness is defined as all those not employed, including those currently looking for work—termed "unemployed" in government statistics—and those not looking for work.
Joblessness among Black and Hispanic teens was even higher: 78.3% for Black teens (the highest since 1983) and 68.4% for Latino teens, the highest reported for young Latinos.
The 2001 tax cut did not produce the jobs that teens need to supplement family income or earn money to pay for college, according to Marian Wright Edelman, President of the Children's Defense Fund. Twenty-two states have seen increases of 10% or more in state college tuition fees during the past year, according to the National Association of State Universities and Land-Grant Colleges.
"If benefits from the Bush Administration's massive tax cuts to the wealthy were supposed to trickle down to the rest of the work force, they are not reaching young people," said Edelman. "Joblessness among Black teens is the highest it has been since the Reagan Administration. How shameful that the Bush Administration hands billions to millionaires but will not help provide jobs for young people who desperately need them."
At the same time that the jobless rate for young people is rising, the Bush Administration has proposed elimination of the Workforce Investment Act's Youth Opportunity Grant program. In a job market where training and experience are essential, programs that offer youth skills training are a crucial part of reducing teen unemployment. The administration and Congress' proposed changes to the Workforce Investment Act could be devastating to young people who need work.
The latest data for large cities (April, 2000) show the highest rates of out-of-school youth without employment were in Hartford, CT (70.5%), New Orleans, LA (69.4%), Brownsville, TX (68.1%), Miami, FL (67.5%), and Gary, IN (67.3%). The large city data (for cities over 100,000 population) are from the 2000 Census and are also available by race and education status.
# # #
Background Information:
June Youth Jobless Rates by Race, 1948-2003 (Adobe PDF : 2 pages : 90KB)
State Teen Jobless Rates 2001 and 2002
(Adobe PDF : 1 page : 58KB)
Black and Hispanic State Teen Jobless Rates 2001 and 2002
(Adobe PDF : 1 page : 58KB)
Top 20 Large Cities by Percent Jobless Among Out-of-School Youth: April 2000
(Adobe PDF : 1 page : 40KB)
###
|
