Our young people are deeply and disproportionately impacted by joblessness; late last year, the black youth unemployment rate stood at about 40 percent

But we are not alone. According to a recent article in the Economist, almost 300 million youth around the world between the ages of 15-24 are not working.

This truly is becoming generation jobless, not only for Black youth in America, but for poor youth around the world.

From the Economist:

HELDER PEREIRA is a young man with no work and few prospects: a 21-year-old who failed to graduate from high school and lost his job on a building site four months ago. With his savings about to run out, he has come to his local employment centre in the Paris suburb of Sevran to sign on for benefits and to get help finding something to do. He’ll get the cash. Work is another matter. Youth unemployment in Sevran is over 40%.

A continent away in Athlone, a gritty Cape Town suburb, Nokhona, a young South African mother of two, lacks a “matric” or high-school qualification, and has been out of work since October 2010, when her contract as a cleaner in a coffee shop expired. She hopes for a job as a maid, and has sought help from DreamWorker, a charity that tries to place young jobseekers in work. A counsellor helps Nokhona brush up her interview skills. But the jobless rate among young black South Africans is probably around 55%.

Read more at Economist.com

 

Thoughts on these truly troubling numbers?

What does this mean for black youth and other youth of color who stand at the margins with a broken education system and sparse social capital?

Sound off below!