Fewer young people found work this summer compared to last year, continuing a long-term decline in youth participation in the labor force. While July remains the peak hiring month for 16- to 24-year-olds, the share of employed youth has slipped, reflecting broader economic headwinds and structural shifts in the job market.
A little over half (53.1%) of young people aged 16 to 24 were employed this summer, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). This measure is down from 54.5% in the summer of 2024.
There were 21.1 million employed 16- to 24-year-olds in July 2025. Between April and July, the number of employed youth rose by 1.2 million.
About one-quarter (5.4 million) of those workers were employed in the leisure and hospitality industry, the largest share of youth workers. An additional 17% of employed youth worked in the retail trade industry, and 14% worked in education and health services.
The summer is typically the peak season for youth employment due to school breaks and increased seasonal hiring demand in sectors such as retail and hospitality. Youth employment rises significantly between April and July each year, with the month of July being the summertime peak, according to the BLS.
The downward trajectory in youth employment has been attributed to, among other factors, a generally slowing U.S. labor market, economic uncertainty, and automation that’s wiping out some entry level jobs. But declining labor force participation for this age group started long before this year.
The labor force participation rate for 16- to 24-year-olds was 59.5 percent in July 2025, down from 60.4% a year earlier. The labor force participation rate is the proportion of the population that is working or actively looking for work.
“Gradually, but steadily, youth labor force participation has been falling since around 2000,” said Justin Ladner, senior labor economist at SHRM. “Part of the reason for that is because of greater participation in higher education,” he said. “More people are going to college, which depresses labor force participation. But among those who are not going to college, particularly among men, labor force participation has also been falling. It’s become a concerning issue.”
Ladner added that when looking at the older cohort of the group — people aged 22 –to 24 — the impact of artificial intelligence eliminating entry-level roles has become a factor. “Recent college graduates have been struggling relative to the overall workforce,” he said.
The unemployment rate for recent college graduates has been higher than the overall unemployment rate, reversing the historical trend.
“That’s partly due to a mismatch between the skills college graduates have and what employers are looking for, but also increasingly there is evidence to show that AI is having an impact,” Ladner said. “Graduates tend to flow into entry-level, white-collar roles that AI is increasingly taking on.”
There are a lot of headwinds on the horizon for young people entering the workforce, he said. The solution to reaching the maximum labor force participation from this group might include taking a skills-first hiring approach instead of mostly focusing on educational credentials, Ladner said. The answer is “maybe getting more young people into skills development programs and hiring based on those skills or putting more of an emphasis on vocational training in secondary education.”
Teen Employment
The percentage of 16- to-19-year-olds working or looking for jobs fell to 35.4% in May from 37.4% a year earlier, the lowest May level since the pandemic in 2020. In contrast, 55% of teenagers were in the labor force in May 1979. That figure dropped to 32% to 34% through the 2010s as many teens instead spent summers taking time off, preparing for college, or working gig jobs not tracked by the government.
“It seems like the idea of working is fading for this age group, but the reasons why are not clear,” Ladner said. It may be due to preparing for college with internships or resume-building activities, or the perception that minimum wage jobs — typical for teens — are not worth the effort anymore, he said.
“The real value of the minimum wage in the 1970s was higher than it is today,” Ladner said. The value of the minimum wage depends on what part of the country you live in, but some people may look at the options and think the payoff is not there, he said.
Unemployment
From April to July 2025, the number of unemployed youth rose by 690,000 to 2.5 million. The youth unemployment rate was 10.8% in July, higher than the 9.8% rate in July 2024. The unemployment rate overall is 4.2%.
Typically, the number of unemployed young people increases with the onset of summer, as people who were not in the labor force while attending school begin seeking employment. To be classified as unemployed, a person must be looking and available for work.
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