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Youth Unemployment: The New Great Depression

A forum held by the Commission on Children and the Connecticut Workforce Development Council on January 10, 2012, Hartford

Senator Richard Blumenthal addresses the forum

U.S. Senator Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut addresses the forum.

Overview | CT-N video | Documents | News media coverage | Photos

Overview

For young people, the Great Depression isn't a history lesson-it's a current event. While the overall unemployment rate hovered around 8 percent last summer, it stood at 17.3 percent for those between the ages of 16 and 24. That's why the Commission partnered with the Connecticut Workforce Development Council to hold a public forum on the issue at the Legislative Office Building in Hartford. The panelists—who provided data on the depth of the problem and talked about possible solutions to it—included elected officials, agency heads, business people, academics, and Connecticut youth with first-hand stories of what it's like to seek work in today's economy.

CT-N video

Length: 2 hours, 17 minutes. You may also watch on the CT-N website and order DVDs there.

Documents

Agenda
"Taking a Hard Look at Youth Employment in the 21st Century" - PowerPoint presentation by John Twomey of NYATEP for the Commission on Children and the Connecticut Workforce Development Council forum, "Youth Unemployment: the New Great Depression," January 10, 2012.
"Summer Youth Employment Program 2011" - A report by the Connecticut Workforce Development Council
Reconnecting the Disconnected: Leveraging Federal Policy and Local Practice to Expand Education and Labor Market Opportunity for Youth - A PowerPoint presentation by the Campaign for Youth at the Center for Law and Social Policy (CLASP)
"Youth Employment in Connecticut" - Article in the July 2011 report of the Connecticut Economic Digest, a newsletter of the Connecticut Department of Labor

See the Youth Employment section for more resources

News media coverage

"U.S. teens struggle to find elusive part-time jobs," an Associated Press article that brought national attention to the forum
"Technology Puts Young People Out of Work" - by CTNewsJunkie

Photos

For a full-screen slide show, go to this Picasa page and click "Slideshow."

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This page was last updated: January 31, 2012