News Headlines

Study Finds Job Rate Low for the Young

Posted: 12:34 PM Dec 3, 2012
Reporter: The Associated Press

Young adults in Mississippi were less likely to be employed in 2011 than their peers in other states.

A new Kids Count study by the Annie E. Casey Foundation shows 51 percent of 20- to 24-year-olds in Mississippi had jobs in 2011. That's the lowest employment rate in the U.S. The national average for the age group was 61 percent.

The study discusses "disconnected youth," or people aged 16 and 24 who were neither employed nor in school.

Mississippi's employment rate for 16- to 19-year-olds was 23 percent -- lower than the 26 percent national average but not the lowest in the nation.

Kids Count Mississippi director Linda Southward says children who grow up in poverty are less likely to have connections or mentoring that could help them find jobs.