Is this true? Youth unemployment is at 52%??

[proud2BlibKansan]

It's from the NY Post and I am hoping this is NOT true:

The unemployment rate for young Americans has exploded to 52.2 percent -- a post-World War II high, according to the Labor Dept. -- meaning millions of Americans are staring at the likelihood that their lifetime earning potential will be diminished and, combined with the predicted slow economic recovery, their transition into productive members of society could be put on hold for an extended period of time.

And worse, without a clear economic recovery plan aimed at creating entry-level jobs, the odds of many of these young adults -- aged 16 to 24, excluding students -- getting a job and moving out of their parents' houses are long. Young workers have been among the hardest hit during the current recession -- in which a total of 9.5 million jobs have been lost.

"It's an extremely dire situation in the short run," said Heidi Shierholz, an economist with the Washington-based Economic Policy Institute. "This group won't do as well as their parents unless the jobs situation changes."

Al Angrisani, the former assistant Labor Department secretary under President Reagan, doesn't see a turnaround in the jobs picture for entry-level workers and places the blame squarely on the Obama administration and the construction of its stimulus bill.

more . . . http://www.nypost.com/p/news/business/the_dead_end_kids_AnwaWNOGqsXMuIlGONNX1K

[tabatha]

1. here are some stats

http://www.economist.com/displaystory.cfm?story_id=14258817

[pinto]

2. I looked at the BLS website and could find no verification for this statement by the Post author.

Bureau of Labor Statistics notes unemployment as record levels among 16 - 24, but there is no mention of 52%.

http://www.bls.gov/news.release/youth.t02.htm

Unemployment

In July 2009, 4.4 million youth were unemployed, up by nearly 1.0
million from July 2008. The youth unemployment rate was 18.5 percent
in July 2009, the highest July rate on record for the series, which
began in 1948. As with the decline in employment, the increase in
youth unemployment in the summer of 2009 reflected a weak job market.
The July 2009 unemployment rates for young men (19.7 percent), women
(17.3 percent), whites (16.4 percent), blacks (31.2 percent), Asians
(16.3 percent), and Hispanics (21.7 percent) increased from a year
earlier. (See table 2.)

the Post author may be spinning this data as "unemployment" -

Employment

In July 2009, 19.3 million 16- to 24-year-olds were employed. This
summer's increase in youth employment was lower than last year's (1.6
million vs. 1.9 million). The employment-population ratio for youth--
the proportion of the 16- to 24-year-old civilian noninstitutional pop-
ulation that was employed--was 51.4 percent in July, down 4.6 percent-
age points from July 2008. The ratio has fallen by nearly 18 percent-
age points since its peak in July 1989. The steep decline from July
2008 to July 2009 reflects, in part, continued weak labor market condi-
tions due to the recession that began in December 2007. (See table 2.)


The employment-population ratio for young men was 52.2 percent in
July 2009, down from 57.9 percent in July 2008. The employment-pop-
ulation ratios for women (50.5 percent), whites (55.2 percent), blacks
(36.4 percent), Asians (41.3 percent), and Hispanics (46.5 percent) in
July 2009 also were lower than a year earlier.

:shrug:

[proud2BlibKansan]

3. The author links to another Post article

:rofl:

Thanks for the good info!

[pinto]

4. LOL. I smell Post hit piece, complete with an Obama pic. Just in case we didn't get it.

:eyes:

[SpartanDem]

5. Someone might want inform HuffPo

as they're blazing this headline right now.