Youth unemployment has persisted at record levels since the recession, in Connecticut and around the nation. That’s the finding of a new study which takes a look at the issues of young people trying to enter the workforce in the last decade.
The recession disproportionately affected young people.
The Brookings Institution said official figures have failed to capture the real struggles of teens and young adults. It said the number of working teenagers has gone down by nearly half over a decade, with an unemployment rate now at 25 percent.
Report author Martha Ross said the recession disproportionately affected young people. "It’s because they have less experience," she said. "They often have lower levels of education and on-the-job training, and they have smaller networks of job contacts and leads to tap, so they’re more vulnerable."
The study looked at youth unemployment in Hartford, Bridgeport and New Haven. Bridgeport had the strongest performance among teens, ranking sixth in the nation for teen employment, but 29th for employment among young adults. Hartford's young adult population ranked 50th out of 100 metros, and New Haven's ranked 47th.
Ross said young people should be given far more exposure to the workplace while they’re still in high school and college. She said governments should consider subsidizing work programs to give young people much-needed work experience.
"We identified it as a key variable affecting later employment," Ross said. "As a young person, if you don’t have a job now, your chances of getting a job down the line are smaller, because you are learning pretty important work skills on the job that you just don’t learn in school or otherwise. Employers want those skills. In order to reduce the scarring effect of youth unemployment, a subsidized jobs program could go a long way."
The report also found that young people of color are disproportionately affected by unemployment, which is a problem the authors said is closely linked to educational opportunities.
