Why We Can't Wait: A Youth Data Portrait on Economic Justice

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As poverty rates declined nationally, the gap between young adult poverty rates and national poverty rates did not close.

Young people of color were more likely to live in poverty than white young adults.

Nearly 3 in 4 young parents lived in households with low incomes.

More than 90% of unemployed young people were unable to access any income during the pandemic.

Young people were unemployed at more than double the national average

Hispanic and Black youth unemployment was around double that of the national unemployment rate

Young people are experiencing brutal unemployment rates: Young adult unemployment during the pandemic, by race and ethnicity

Over half of unemployed young people were out of work due to the pandemic.

We can’t wait for economic justice. It is time for a New Deal for Youth that responds to the historic roots and current scale of the crisis. When the current, once-in-a-lifetime catastrophe is over, our future as a nation will depend on how intentionally we invest in this generation.

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Data and Disparities
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