The economy added 292,000 jobs in December, and the unemployment rate is at a very low 5%. The number of young people who remain unemployed, however, is still very high, as the 16.1% rate among those ages 16 to 19 shows.
The unemployment rate among the young has not changed much in a year. It was 16.8% in December 2014. That month 957,000 people in the 16 to 19 age group were without jobs. Last month the figure was 938,000.
One theory about high unemployment among young people is that their delayed earning power will show up in the economy a decade or more later. As compensation remains low, young people will not buy homes and become significant consumers, and perhaps they will lose the chance for a college education. They will reach their prime earnings years a decade behind where their employment and wages traditionally would be.
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Another theory is that Americans over 65 are more likely to keep working full time because many do not have the financial means to retire. That, in turn, keeps skilled people in jobs that might go to the young. People between 16 and 19 are trapped in an economy in which retirement rates undermine their chances for full-time work.
No matter what the exact cause, an unemployment rate among the young that is three times that national average represents trouble for the economy in years to come.
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