Youth Unemployment Rate Still High in U.S.

Generation Opportunity,a national, nonpartisan youth advocacy organization, announced its "Millennial Jobs Report"for September 2013 on Tuesday. The data are nonseasonally adjusted (NSA) and specific to 18- to 29-year-olds, and found the effective (U6) unemployment rate for that age group, which adjusts for labor force participation by including those who have given up looking for work, is more than double the national average at15.9 percent.

The declining labor force participation rate has created an additional1.7 million young adults who are not counted as unemployedby the U.S. Department of Labor because they are not in the labor force, meaning that those young people have given up looking for work due to the lack of jobs.

The (U3) unemployment rate for 18- to 29-year-olds is11.2 percent.

The (U3) unemployment rate for 18- to 29-year-oldAfrican-Americansis slightly higher than the effective unemployment rate at 20.9 percent, while the (U3) unemployment rate for Hispanics in that age group is11.8 percent.

The (U3) unemployment rate for 18- to 29-year-oldwomen was lower at 10.1 percent.

Evan Feinberg, president of Generation Opportunity, said a focus on Obamacare isn't what the youth of today need; instead, it's a focus on getting a real job.

Were three weeks into the first Obamacare enrollment period and, to no surprise, young people are still struggling to find jobs. As the administration spends millions of taxpayer dollars trying to get young people to enroll in the expensive and creepy Obamacare exchanges, the real focus should be on creating jobs particularly for my generation," he said.Not only is Obamacare a bad deal for young people, its also a job killer. The lucky few among us who have been able to secure employment in todays economy are more often than not finding themselves in part-time jobs for which they are overqualified and underpaid.

Its really tough out there for a Millennial and insulting that the administration thinks we should pay more for health care in our leanest, thinnest years just to subsidize an older, wealthier generation.