April’s Unemployment Numbers: Youth Pushed Into Low-Wage Service Jobs

Teens faced the highest unemployment rate in April.

By Jorge Rivas May 04, 2012

Nonfarm payroll employment rose by 115,000 in April, the [U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported Friday. ](http://bls.gov/news.release/empsit.nr0.htm) That’s less than the 155,000 jobs that were added in March and what analysts predicted for the month of April. [ABC News points out teens have the highest unemployment rate and many of them are being pushed in to low-wage jobs:](http://abcnews.go.com/Business/april-unemployment-falls-81-percent-115000-jobs-added/story?id=16272259#.T6PxX59Yt91) > Among the major worker groups, teenagers have the highest unemployment rate, but the imminent summer hiring season may make a dent in that figure. > > In April, teenagers had a 24.9 percent unemployment rate, compared with a 7.5 percent rate for adult men and 7.4 percent among adult women. The unemployment rates for adult men (7.5 percent), adult women (7.4 percent), teenagers (24.9 percent), whites (7.4 percent), and Latinos (10.3 percent) showed little or no change in April, while the rate for blacks (13.0 percent) declined over the month, [according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.](http://bls.gov/news.release/empsit.nr0.htm) The jobless rate for Asians was 5.2 percent in April saw little changed from a year earlier.