Youth Employment Research
Video
Introduction
GCI has produced reports on the issue of youth employment:
- A Normalized Crisis: Youth and Young Adult Joblessness and Disconnection in Chicago, Cook County, Illinois, and the U.S., 2019-2024 (Data Brief, February 2026)
- Youth Employment Data Brief (May 2025): Racial and Geographic Inequities in Youth and Young Adult Joblessness and Disconnection in Chicago, Cook County, Illinois, and the U.S., 2019-2023
- Uneven Recovery and Sustained Inequality after the COVID-19 Recession: Employment for Chicago’s Youth and Young Adults
- Out of School and Out of Work 16 to 19 and 20 to 24 Year Olds in Chicago and Cook County in 2017
- Impact of COVID-19 Pandemic on Youth and Young Adult Employment in Chicago, Illinois, and the U.S.
- Revitalizing Manufacturing and Expanding Opportunities for Chicago’s Black and Latino Communities
- Industrial Restructuring and the Continuing Impact on Youth Employment in Illinois
- The High Costs for Out of School and Jobless Youth in Chicago and Cook County
- Abandoned in their Neighborhoods: Youth Joblessness amidst the Flight of Industry and Opportunity
- Youth Employment Data: Employment to Population Ratios for 16 to 19 and 20 to 24 Year Olds by Chicago Community Area, 2005-2009 to 2010-2014
- A Lost Generation: The Disappearance of Teens and Young Adults from the Job Market in Cook County
- Lost: The Crisis of Jobless and Out of School Teens and Young Adults in Chicago, Illinois and the U.S.
These reports have been cited in numerous media outlets, some of which are linked below:
- Our Chicago: Keeping Children Safe & Youth Joblessness
- Study shows the number of Illinois teens out of school, work is still too high
- Chicago’s youth joblessness rate worse than U.S. & Illinois
- Is a summer youth jobs program in Chicago falling short of expectations?
- Report recommends investment in youth employment
- Chicago sees a spike in Black teens out of school and out of work, study shows
- Chicago youth joblessness rates outpacing national average, new study reports
- In some Chicago neighborhoods, almost half of all teens and young adults are not going to school or working
- Cutting teen unemployment key to lowering Chicago crime rate, study suggests
- Chicago youth struggle with higher rates of unemployment post-pandemic, new report finds. ‘I need a job ASAP’
- ‘There’s a Lot of Unevenness’: Chicago’s Youth Joblessness Rates Outpace Illinois and US, New Report Finds
- Unemployment rate for Chicago’s black youth improves
- Youth Unemployment Rates Dropping For Black Men, Increasing for Hispanic Women
- Chicago’s young African-Americans don’t count in Trump’s job numbers
- Chicago’s Awful Divide
- If jobs stop bullets, why aren’t more companies stepping up?
- Chance and Chief Keef: A tale of two rappers
- Five ways Trump can help solve Chicago gun crime
- Nearly 90,000 Cook County teens, young adults not in school or working, report says
- Column: Pay to train at-risk youths now or pay for them later
- Report paints dismal picture of youth joblessness in Chicago
- Chicago youth jobs report highlights need for better public transit
- Elected Officials Gather at Youth Connection to Confront Youth Employment Crisis
- A LinkedIn for Chicago’s youth? Yolobe looks to connect kids with opportunities
- Nearly a year after layoffs, former Oreo plant workers struggle to find their way
- Laura Washington: Job skills and opportunities deter violence
- Trump touts apprenticeship initiative, Durbin talks of job crisis
- The Cost Of Jobs
- Study: Jobless Youth Without Diplomas Cost Billions In Lost Taxes
- Study suggests 90,000 Cook County youth out of school and jobless
- Fewer Teens Are Working — and One Senator Says Falling Youth Employment Will Cost America $9.5 Billion
- The Crisis of Unemployment Among Chicago Youth
- Study: Jobless youth without diplomas cost billions in lost taxes
- New report details huge unemployment among young blacks, Latinos in Chicago
- Chronic Youth Unemployment Hurts Chicago
- Editorial: Fix Chicago’s violence? Start by helping kids land jobs
- Report says youth unemployment chronic, concentrated and deeply rooted
- Chicago tackles youth unemployment as it wrestles with its consequences
- Youth unemployment stings south suburbs far worse than north
- Report: Cook County Leads in White Youth Employment, Black Youth Joblessness
- Researchers: Nothing Stops A Bullet Like A Job
- Report tracks racial disparity in jobs for youths in Cook County
- Cook County Hearing Puts Spotlight On Youth Unemployment Problem
- Hope fades for creating jobs, ending violence in Chicago, south suburbs
- The Crisis of Minority Unemployment
Press Packets: