Tracking Youth Unemployment During the COVID-19 Pandemic
Since the COVID-19 pandemic led to a sharp economic downturn in March 2020, young people ages 16 to 24 have experienced higher rates of unemployment. To track youth unemployment during and in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic, with funding from the Schultz Family Foundation, Mathematica has developed a monthly, semi-annual, and annual data series on youth unemployment beginning with 2010. The data series provides publicly available and timely data on youth unemployment at the national level by population groups, at the state level, and in select metro areas. These data can help policymakers, foundations, and other key stakeholders who directly serve youth target their resources and programs more effectively.
Use the visualization below to explore youth unemployment rates by geography and groups.
Source: Mathematica compilation based on the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ monthly Labor Force Statistics from the Current Population Survey. Download data tables.
Source: Mathematica estimates based on the monthly Current Population Survey and using the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ definition of unemployed and civil labor force.
Notes: Youth are defined as those ages 16-24. Metro areas with small sample sizes (in a given period) are excluded due to low statistical reliability of the estimated unemployment rates. Estimates do not account for potential seasonal patterns. More details are available in the technical notes of the data tables.
Source: Mathematica estimates based on the monthly Current Population Survey and using the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ definition of unemployed and civil labor force.
Notes: Youth are defined as those ages 16-24. Metro areas with small sample sizes (in a given period) are excluded due to low statistical reliability of the estimated unemployment rates. Estimates do not account for potential seasonal patterns. More details are available in the technical notes of the data tables.