Among young adults (ages 16-24), recovery from the COVID-19 recession has looked quite different from previous recessions and from the experiences of older Americans.
For those between the ages of 16 and 24, labor force participation has been falling for some time, accounting for 56 percent of the decrease in the aggregate labor force participation rate (LFPR) between 2000 and 2018, according to a Hamilton Project Report from 2020. In the past, recessions have tended to temporarily accelerate those trends; typically, during recessions and in their aftermath, there are declines in labor force participation among young people and increases in school enrollment. The reason is intuitive and predicted by economic theory: weakness in labor demand lowers the opportunity cost of not working while the future gains from greater education remain unchanged.
Has COVID disrupted the postsecondary pipeline? (brookings.edu)
