American Idles

It’s been a highly corrosive first three months of the year for America’s youth. A report produced by the Center for Economic Policy and Research (CEPR) reveals that approximately 3.8 million Americans age 20 to 24 are not involved in employment, education, or training. This is called the NEET rate, and it is up by 740,000 people, or 24%, from a year earlier, before many young Americans lost their jobs or decided to defer college enrollment when campuses shut down at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. The report further noted that black and Hispanic youth remain idle at disproportionate rates. “About one-in-four Black 20- to 24-year-olds were neither in school nor working during the first quarter of 2021 compared to about one-in-five Hispanics and one-in-six whites,” it states.

Columnist Augusta Saraiva notes the obvious. “Inactive youth is a worrying sign for the future of the economy, as they don’t gain critical job skills to help realize their future earnings potential,” he writes. “Further, high NEET rates may foster environments that are fertile for social unrest.”

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