Families of the Recession
One in seven American children are living with an unemployed parent as a result of the current recession. Totaling 10.5 million kids under the age of 18, this report, entitled Families of the Recession: Unemployed Parents & Their Children, makes the alarming finding that children are almost twice as likely to be affected by unemployment than adults. Young people with an unemployed parent have a greater chance of experiencing homelessness, suffering from child abuse, failing to complete high school or college, and living in adult poverty than other children.
The report combined the monthly unemployment statistics with data on the family status of unemployed men and women from the Annual Social and Economic Supplement to the Current Population Survey. The analysis conducted by Julia Isaacs, First Focus Fellow and scholar at the Brookings Institution, also finds that another 3.3 million young people those seeking jobs between the ages of 16 and 24 - are themselves unemployed.
Key findings outlined in the report include:
The recession has nearly doubled the number of children with an unemployed parent, with the number rising from 5.5 to 10.5 million kids since December 2007.
Almost half of unemployed women and one-third of unemployed men are parents.
Children are disproportionately impacted by unemployment. 14 percent of children have an unemployed parent. This percentage is double that of working-aged adults, 7.4 percent of whom age 18 to 64 were unemployed in December 2009.
The youth unemployment rate of summer 2009 was the highest on record. Data was first collected in summer, 1948.
LEARN MORE:
Download a copy of the report.
Read the press release.
