While the unemployment rate in different states across America seem to be decreasing at a slow yet steady pace, the unemployment rate for youth is actually a lot higher than it should be and it is expected that this rate will actually continue to increase for quite a while. As of right now, the youth employment percentage is at an extremely high rate of 17.2 percent, according to CNBC.

Labor ministers have been working on ways in which they will be able to deal with this problem on their hands and find ways to help youth become employed. Stefano Scarpetta, the director at the OECD for Employment, Labor and Social Affairs, has said, “In the next months, and 2012, we are likely to face a relatively high unemployment level.” He adds to his sentence by saying, “and in particular, I would say, youth unemployment, which is why I think it is important to devote the adequate resources to the most needing youth in the labor market.”

People who fall under the age of 24, considered to be the youth employees, used to have a lot of luck finding work and were the ideal candidates for employment. However, with the economy and the recession, which began in around 2007 and still leaves such a huge scar on the economy in 2011 headed toward 2012, people of this age bracket are no longer able to find employment as easily. This can be a problem as there are many late teenagers and people in their early 20’s who have never been employed thus far due to how hard it is finding employment.

A secretary general for the OECD, Richard Boucher, has said, “It used to be ‘last hired, first fired,’” “Now it’s ‘not hired at all.’” This is quite a scary though, especially for these younger people who have not been employed yet or are having trouble finding employment for quite a while. With such a hard time finding employment, it can be very discouraging.

These youth are seeing problems that people their age, many years ago, did not have problems with. The job market is different now and is still suffering from the recession and downward spiraling economy that put a lot of people out of work for quite some time. Even recent college graduates are having trouble finding employment even after obtaining a degree in a specific field.

It is important for youth, at a young age, to learn all types of different skills so that when it comes time to find employment, they will be versatile and able to find employment. It is important to be good at several skills to find necessary employment especially within such a tough job market.