Youth Unemployment at 15% in August

Generation Opportunity, a national, non-partisan youth advocacy organization, is announcing its Millennial Jobs Report for August 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%. The (U-3) unemployment rate for 18-29 year olds is 10.1%. The declining labor force participation rate has created an additional 1.946 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. Patrice Lee, Director of Outreach at Generation Opportunity, said, “15% of young people are still out of work and it’s no secret why- government is too big, spending levels are too high, and opportunities for us are limited. As we continue to work hard to create opportunities, politicians in Washington continue to impose policies that harm us. More than ever, we need to work to elect officials that will fight for the interests of my generation and not continue the policies of generational theft that have prevailed under the current administration.”