Tuesday, August 17, 2021

Teen Unemployment Rate Is below 10%

Last month the unemployment rate among teenagers aged 16 to 19 was just 9.6 percent. This is a remarkably low rate. You would have to search in the records all the way back to 1953 to find a lower unemployment rate for the age group, reports the Bureau of Labor Statistics. 

The unemployment rate for 16-to-19-year-olds climbed as high as 32.1 percent in April 2020 as the coronavirus pandemic swept through the nation. With employers now scrambling to fill entry-level positions, the teen unemployment rate in July 2021 was well below its pre-pandemic level. Two years earlier, in July 2019, 12.0 percent of 16-19-year-olds were unemployed. 

Unlike teens, the unemployment rate for adults aged 20 or older remains higher than it was pre-pandemic. In July 2021, 5.2 percent of adults were unemployed compared with 3.3 percent in July 2019. 

Note: The unemployed are people who have been actively looking for a job in the past four weeks. The unemployment rate is the number of unemployed as a percentage of the labor force (the sum of the employed and the unemployed).

Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics, Teenage Unemployment Rate under 10 Percent for the Third Straight Month in July 2021

No comments: