GRAPH 1
GRAPH 2
GRAPH 1 For young people, finding a job is especially hard. People aged 16 to 24 have a higher unemployment rate than the general population. Between the beginning of 2008 and July 2011, the unemployment rate within this age bracket rose from 14 percent to 18.1 percent. When general unemployment is high, businesses tend to hire older and more experienced workers for positions that had previously been considered "entrylevel" making it extra hard for younger people to be hired. GRAPH 2 Another telling statistic is the "average duration of unemployment." For much of the past 50 years, this number has fluctuated between 10 and 20 weeks. In the current economy it is taking people much longer, on average, to find work. The average length of time that people remain unemployed has skyrocketed since early 2008 to over 10 months