(TNND) — About one in seven young adults is “disconnected,” meaning they are living their lives without working or bettering themselves through training or school.
And RAND researchers are sounding the alarm about the toll that takes on both the young people and their communities.
Jennie Wenger, a senior economist at RAND, said there are immediate and future costs to the individual.
But there’s also a societal cost to people being underemployed.
Disconnected young people are more likely to be eligible for a variety of government programs.
And communities lose out on tax revenue when people earn less than their potential, Wenger said.
The total impact to society from a young person’s disconnection could be as high as $1 million when factoring in lost earnings, lost tax revenues and other costs, Wenger and her fellow researchers said.
They said there are nearly 4.2 million disconnected people aged 18 to 24.
The traditional definition of disconnected youth includes 16- and 17-year-olds, she said. But they omitted those kids, because the majority of them are still in high school.
They also separated a group of young women who’ve recently given birth, because they believe their issues and needs are quite different than the majority of disconnected young adults.
And they included “marginally” connected young people.
“Another thing that we bring up in the piece is there are a lot of young people who work marginally,” Wenger said. “They might work an hour a week doing a very part-time job. They might work 10 hours a week. They might be taking one online class. This group doesn’t meet the traditional definition of disconnected, but we do not believe that sustaining longtime work at a very part-time level or just taking one class at a time is likely to put a person onto a fast path to success.”
In the future, Wenger said they’d like to study how young people move back and forth between being marginally connected and disconnected.
Most young people experiencing disconnection have at least a high school diploma, and about three-quarters of disconnected young people have a high school diploma or some college experience.
Wenger applauded efforts to boost high school graduation rates, but she said that alone won’t solve the problem.
Young men have higher rates of disconnection than young women.
But family status, race/ethnicity, and disability status generally are more important than gender in explaining disconnection rates, the researchers found.
Young veterans have high rates of disconnection. Young male and female veterans might become disconnected for different reasons, but the sometimes-bumpy transition from military to civilian life likely drives some of the disconnection.
Levels of disconnection have been relatively stable over the last five to 10 years, Wenger said.
She said they know risk factors for disconnection, but there is no simple answer for why some young adults become disconnected.
There are various community and personal factors at play.
And even in groups with high levels of disconnection, such as those with a physical or mental disability, there are also a lot of young people who are engaged with work, training or school.
Wenger also said researchers lack data on how long disconnected young people stay that way.
“I’m absolutely convinced that longer periods of disconnection are probably more harmful in the very long run both for individuals and possibly for their communities,” Wenger said.
Given the cost to society, Wenger said we shouldn’t just leave it to individuals to pull themselves up by their bootstraps.
“The fact that we’re looking at young people who are aged 18 to 24 and who are probably not completely mature suggests to me that there’s a role beyond the individual,” she said.
Wenger said wraparound services that go beyond coaching on interviews and resumes can pay off, even if they cost more. Those are services that address needs like transportation, housing and mental health.
