Youth & Young Adult Employment

Many youth and young adults in the United States have difficulty finding pathways to stable employment and economic security in adulthood. Gaining work experience and educational credentials early in one’s work life can help set young adults on an upward path of economic mobility, but approximately 4.5 million young people ages 16 to 24 are disconnected from work and school, and a significant number face long-term economic instability. Due to structural inequities—including historical and ongoing racism, and patriarchy—some groups of young people (e.g., youth of color, young women, youth who experienced childhood poverty, children of parents with low education levels, or young people who have interacted with the foster care or justice systems) lack access to early education and employment opportunities that can advance their economic security.

Child Trends aims to improve access to the employment and educational opportunities that young people need to reach economic security in later adulthood. Our work has highlighted barriers to upward mobility for young people with socioeconomic disadvantages, as well as persistent systemic inequities for youth of color and young women. For example:

In a recent report, Pathways to High-Quality Jobs for Young Adults, we found that young people who participate in work-based learning experiences with the support of a caring adult are more likely to have a high-quality job at age 29.
Through the Pathways to Upward Mobility and Social Genome Model projects, we analyze secondary data to understand young adults’ employment pathways and simulate their life course implications, highlighting the potential of policies and programs that promote or hinder young adults’ economic mobility.
Through technical assistance and research projects such as Generation Work and Expanding Opportunities for Young Parents, we produce tools and provide direct assistance to workforce development practitioners and agency leaders on fostering positive relationships and integrating other PYD approaches into programs that serve youth and young adults.

Our work has also been featured at prominent national conferences. For example, our research on the use of photovoice to elevate youth voice in job training programs was featured at APPAM, and our lessons learned on how to reconnect youth who have been disconnected from school and work were featured at conferences for both APPAM and the American Evaluation Association.