Thursday, June 07, 2012
Being new to the workforce has not been a fruitful experience so far for the majority of recent high school graduates who skipped going to college.
Among those from the classes of 2009, 2010 and 2011 who received their diplomas, 54% are unemployed and only 16% have full-time jobs. Another 22% work part time, even though most of them would rather have full-time employment. There are only minor variations by race.
The situation is only a little better for young people who graduated before the financial crisis hit. Only 37% have full-time jobs, while 23% work part time. Another 35% are unemployed.
According to a report from the John J. Heldrich Center for Workforce Development at Rutgers University, three out of five recent high school grads live with their parents or other relatives.
A large majority (73%) believe they need to go back to school in order to be successful. But only half of them are committed to enrolling in the next few years.
-Noel Brinkerhoff
To Learn More:
More Young Americans Out of High School Are Also Out of Work (by Catherine Rampell, New York Times)
Left Out. Forgotten? Recent High School Graduates and the Great Recession (by Carl Van Horn, Cliff Zukin, Mark Szeltner and Charley Stone, Rutgers University) (pdf)
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