Job Prospects Grim For Youth, Especially Black Teens : NPR: Monet Livingston's odds of finding a job have never been good. And they've never looked bleaker.
'I've been looking for a job since I turned 16,' says Livingston, a 19-year-old single mother of two who relies on welfare. 'I have a lot of friends that are homeless and are out on the streets and jobless because there's nobody willing to hire them.'
The unemployment rate for teens — particularly African-American teens like Livingston — shows just how difficult it may be to turn around job losses after the recession.
The Last To Be Hired
On Friday, the Labor Department reported that the while the country gained 162,000 jobs in March, the overall unemployment rate remained unchanged at 9.7 percent. And it's much tougher for teenagers; The jobless rate for those between ages 16 and 19 rose to 26.1 percent. For African-American teens, it's even worse: That rate stands at 41.1 percent.
