Youth Unemployment: An International Problem

Young people have borne much of the brunt of job losses during the recent global downturn.

Coping with unemployment is difficult for anyone. But for disadvantaged youth lacking basic education, failure to find a first job or keep it for long can have negative long-term consequences on their career prospects -- what some experts refer to as “scarring.”

From 2006 to 2010, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) reviewed the youth labor markets in 16 countries: Australia, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, France, Greece, Japan, Korea, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, the Slovak Republic, Spain, the United Kingdom and the United States.

The Summary and Main Recommendations for the United States is available at: http://www.oecd.org/dataoecd/34/30/44161929.pdf

Three key points, when it comes to the United States:

• At-risk youth are often left behind  when it comes to school-to-work transitions
• These youth often remain disconnected from the workforce for many years
• Labor market programs that target the needs of disconnected youth are underfunded

Approximately five million young adults in the United States are “disconnected youth;" defined by WIA as low-income youth who face one or multiple challenges to employment or learning.

Quote from OECD report: "Not only are the vast majority of youth currently in this at-risk group not receiving the support they need to reconnect to education and the labour market, but their number is likely to increase significantly in the wake of the current economic crisis if urgent action is not taken."

OECD Recommendations include: 

• Holding high schools accountable for the workforce and college readiness of their students
• Promoting the use of apprenticeships for teenagers (for example, in Michigan's School-to-Registered Apprenticeship Program)
• Encouraging small employers in rural areas to join together and train youth apprentices 

Young Lives On Hold: The College Dreams of Undocumented Students

The United States and Immigration: 

• The United States is in the midst of the largest migratory wave in history: 
• Since the 1990s, more than 1 million new immigrants have arrived each year.
• A total of approximately 38 million immigrants live in the U.S. — about three times the number of transnational immigrants in the world’s second-largest country of immigration, the Russian Federation.

Unauthorized Immigration

• Nearly one-third of the immigrant population of the United States is now undocumented, by far the largest number (and proportion) in U.S. immigration history.
• In total, the number is approximately 12 million unauthorized persons.

Children of Immigrants:

• More than 70 million people in the United States are immigrants, or the children of immigrants. 
• Children of immigrants are now the fastest-growing sector of the child population in the United States.
• Approximately 2 million children are in the United States as undocumented immigrants. 

Undocumented Students:

• About 65,000 undocumented children who have lived in the United States for five years or longer graduate from high school each year. 
• Although they can legally attend most colleges, they are not eligible for most forms of financial aid. 
• Given the opportunity to receive additional education and move into better-paying jobs, undocumented
  students could pay more in taxes and have more money to spend and invest in the U.S. economy.

Learn more by reading Young Lives On Hold: The College Dreams of Undocumented Students.

Find Youth Info

Map My Community is a tool designed to assist in locating resources in your community to help you build and strengthen your youth program. It's a great way to brainstorm regarding building new partnerships, identify gaps in your community, and learn about existing resources, in order to avoid duplication of effort.

The Program Directory is a searchable database of evidence-based, federally-funded youth programs. You can search for programs by risk factor, protective factor, or keyword.

Two New Resources for Disconnected Youth

The term "disconnected youth" generally refers to young people between the ages of 16 and 24 who are not in school or employed in the legitimate workforce.  

They may have had experience with the criminal justice system or have been in foster care. They aren’t receiving the education, work, civic, and family support they need to be successful adults.

Follow the Money: Funding and Legislative Opportunities on the Horizon to Serve Disconnected Youth discusses current and pending legislation that present opportunities to fund programs in communities to keep young people connected to school and recapture those who are not engaged in school or work.


Building a Comprehensive Youth Employment Delivery System: Examples of Effective Practice describes the landscape for youth in many high poverty urban communities across the country and outlines examples of effective collaboration across the education, juvenile justice and child welfare systems to address the needs of this population.