The April jobs report was released this morning, showing that the economy added 165,000 jobs in April as unemployment ticked down to 7.5 percent. The numbers are still far too low (to keep up with population growth) and too high respectively, but that didn’t prevent ABC News from singing hosannas to the Obama-inspired recovery. Bloomberg reported more good news, noting that the numbers were better than forecast.
Not everyone is dancing in the street, however. Specifically, for Millennials — job seekers between the ages of 18 and 29 — the April report was a continuation of bad (make that worsening) news. The rate of unemployment for this population segment, which includes individuals who under normal circumstances would just be entering the workforce, rose to 11.1 percent, non-seasonally adjusted. For specific ethnicities, the picture is even bleaker. For black Millennials, the NSA rate is 20.4 percent, while for Hispanics it is 12 percent.
The watchdog group Generation Opportunity reports that the effective across-the-board unemployment rate, which adjusts for labor participation rate by including Millennials who have given up looking for work, is 16.1 percent. That is the highest the sustained rate of unemployment has been for 18- to 29-year-olds since World War II.
What this means for the 2 million college students graduating this month is that half are unlikely to find meaningful work in the coming months.
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