Here’s the potential double whammy for this year’s graduating classes at high school and university levels: if you go to work, you and roughly a quarter of all under-25 year olds will likely be “underemployed” and an unlucky 13% of you will be “unemployed”. If you go to college you will suffer from crippling tuition costs and consequent student loan debt. Is it any wonder that with sub-marginal state support for higher education that only about a third of Kentucky high school grads are attending postsecondary schools? Is it any wonder that under these conditions that those who do go are saddled with so much debt upon graduation that Kentucky has the third highest default rate nationwide for those loans?

This article is worth lingering over if you want to understand some of the structural issues behind what seem like intractable issues for young citizens in our Commonwealth. A 25% underemployment rate, a 13% unemployment rate, and the third highest student loan default rate are symptoms of a polity that can only get sicker as the legislature and Governor sell austerity as a solution for a starving under-25er.

Despite improvement, the labor market is still weak for young Kentuckians graduating from high school and college in 2016 according to a new report from the Economic Policy Institute (EPI). These graduates join the previous seven classes who have faced “profound weakness” following the Great Recession.In 2015, the unemployment rate for workers under age 25 in Kentucky was still 0.5 percentage points higher than before the recession (unemployment includes people who are currently without work, but actively seeking a job). Even more indicative of extent of labor market weakness, read more

Source: Kentucky’s Class of 2016 Faces Lingering Slack in Labor Market – KY Policy