Number of working youth dropped by almost half since 2000;
Nearly 6.5 million U.S. teens and young adults are neither in
school nor in the workforce, veering toward chronic
underemployment as adults and failing to gain the skills
employers need in the 21st century, according to a new KIDS
COUNT® report from the Annie E. Casey Foundation. Many of these
young people, ranging from ages 16 to 24, face numerous
obstacles, according to the report, Youth and Work: Restoring
Teen and Young Adult Connections to Opportunity. Often described
as disconnected youth, they are encountering greater competition
from older workers for increasingly scarce entry-level jobs,
especially in light of the recession. Many lack the higher skill
set required for the well-paying jobs that are available. They
often don’t graduate from high school on time or prepared for
college, further decreasing their employment options. And a
number of them contend with hurdles beyond their control, such
as growing up in poverty, having few working adu