1999 Summer Employment and Unemployment Among Youth — 1999-08-26

The number of employed youth increased by 2.8 million from April to July, the traditional summertime peak for youth employment, the Bureau of Labor Statistics of the U.S. Department of Labor reported today. This year's seasonal expansion in employment of 16- to 24-year-olds was slightly larger than the 2.5 million increase in the summer of 1998, but about the same as the summer increase in 1997. The number of unemployed young people, which also grows at this time of year, rose by 484,000 between April and July. (Because the focus of this analysis is the seasonal changes in youth employment and unemployment that occur every spring and summer, the data are not seasonally adjusted.) The 16- to 24-year-old labor force--those working or actively looking for work--grows sharply between April and July of each year, as large numbers of high school and college students take or search for summer jobs.