Pathways to high-quality jobs for young adults

Helping young people prepare to engage in work and life as productive adults is a central challenge for any society. Yet, many young people in the United States find that the path from education to employment and economic security in adulthood is poorly marked or inaccessible. As a result, those from low-income and less-educated families have lower rates of high school graduation, college enrollment, and college completion. Moreover, once they enter the labor market, they have lower employment rates and wages.

On Monday, October 29, the Metropolitan Policy Program hosted an event in partnership with Child Trends, marking the release of new research examining the quality of jobs held by young adults from disadvantaged backgrounds and the specific employment, education and training experiences that are associated with higher-quality jobs.  After a presentation of the research, a panel of experts discussed how the findings relate to policy, practice, and young people’s lived experiences, as well as strategies to help more young people obtain good jobs.

Following the panel discussion, speakers took questions from the audience.