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The CARES Act enacted late last week gives some youth and young adults access to stimulus payments, unemployment insurance, Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), paid sick days, and paid family and medical leave. However, it does not address the financial and job insecurity of young people, especially those in educational or workforce training programs.
Going into this crisis, young people accounted for approximately 25 percent of jobs paying low wages, a disproportionate share of the unemployed, and 38 percent of the gig economy. What’s more, there is an unacceptable number of young people (ages 16 to 24) — 4.5 million — who are not connected to school or work, also known as “Opportunity Youth.” The impending financial downturn due to the COVID-19 crisis will only make it more difficult for youth and young adults facing structural barriers to employment to find quality jobs and careers.
Congress must include workforce and education funding and investments that target this economically fragile population in the next stimulus package in response to the public health and economic crisis. Further, the next act must finish what the CARES Act failed to do — invest in health and nutrition access, robust paid leave provisions for all workers, education, child care, essential criminal justice reforms, and supports for immigrants and immigrant families.
The millennial and post-millennial generation compromise over 40 percent of the current labor force. They are the most ethnically diverse generations yet. How we will fare as a nation when this once-in-a-lifetime catastrophe is over will depend on how intentionally we invested in them.
Read this blog by Kisha Bird and Lashon Amado describing how young people need more support from economic stimulus legislation.
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