Still work to do: 15.4% of young people out of work in May

Generation Opportunity, a national, non-partisan youth advocacy organization, is announcing its Millennial Jobs Report for May 2014. The data is non-seasonally adjusted (NSA) and is specific to 18-29 year olds.

• The effective (U-6) unemployment rate for 18-29 year olds, which adjusts for labor force participation by including those who have given up looking for work, is 15.4 percent (NSA). The (U-3) unemployment rate for 18-29 year olds is 10 percent (NSA).
• The declining labor force participation rate has created an additional 1.929 million young adults that are not counted as “unemployed” by the U.S. Department of Labor because they are not in the labor force, meaning that those young people have given up looking for work due to the lack of jobs.
• The effective (U-6) unemployment rate for 18-29 year old African-Americans is 23.1 percent (NSA); the (U-3) unemployment rate is 19.4 percent (NSA).
• The effective (U-6) unemployment rate for 18-29 year old Hispanics is 16.2 percent (NSA); the (U-3) unemployment rate is 10.2 percent (NSA).
• The effective (U-6) unemployment rate for 18-29 year old women is 13 percent (NSA); the (U-3) unemployment rate is 9.2 percent (NSA).

Patrice Lee, Director of Outreach at Generation Opportunity, issued the following statement:

“School is out for summer, and more than four out of five recent grads don’t have jobs. My generation deserves better than an economy in which a 15.4% effective unemployment rate for 18-29 year olds is considered a good month.”