ECONOMIC

YouthEmploymentYouths have much higher unemployment rates than adults (Table 34).Most of this higher unemployment, however, is frictional and arises fromthe frequency with which youths enter and leave the labor force. Laborforce entry generally entails a period of job search during which the personis unemployed. Many unemployed youths are entering the labor force forthe first time. Others are entering it again after leaving it for a time,frequently because of the dovetailing of schooling and work—or, for youngwomen, the dovetailing of household responsibilities (including child care)and work in the labor market. In addition, in an attempt to gain experiencein different types of employment youths are more likely than adults to quita job and search for another. Thus, although the unemployment rate ofyouths in 1973, the most recent year of low unemployment, was substantiallyhigher than that of adults, there was little difference in unemployment ratesarising from the loss of a job.The average duration of unemployment among youths is about half thatfor adult males: in 1973, 7.1 weeks for teenagers compared with 14.0 weeksfor men aged 25-59. However, the long-duration unemployment rate—thoseunemployed 15 weeks or longer as a percentage of the labor force—wasgreater for teenagers: 1.6 percent compared with 0.7 percent for adultmen aged 25-59.Although teenagers are less likely to be employed than adults are, thenumber of youths who are neither enrolled in school nor working is notlikely to be large when the economy is near full employment. Of the 15.8million teenagers (aged 16-19) in the civilian noninstitutional population inOctober 1973, only 1.9 million (of whom 1.4 million were females) werenot enrolled in school and not employed. Most of the female teenagers not inschool and not employed were providing home care for their own children.TABLE 34.—Civilian unemployment rates under alternative definitions by age andsex, 1973[Percent)Age and sexAll civilianworkers *Job losers andjob leavers 216-19 years, both sexes14.54.7Job losers 8 2.820-24 years:MenWomen7.38.44.84.03.42.125 years and over:MenWomen2.54.02.02.31.71.71 Percent of civilian labor force.2 Percent of civilian labor force excluding new entrants and reentrants.8 Percent of civilian labor force excluding new entrants, reentrants, and job leavers.Note.—All unemployment rates are based on civilian labor force (as indicated in footnotes) for age and sex groupspecified.Sources: Department of Labor (Bureau of Labor Statistics) and Council of Economic Advisers.140