Teen Employment Up, Age 20+ Employment Down Again In November 2022

November 2022 marks the second consecutive month in which U.S. teen employment was up, but Age 20+ employment was reported down.

Here are the seasonally adjusted numbers from the November 2022 Employment Situation report, with their change from October 2022:

• Total Employment (Age 16+): 158,470,000 (-138,000).
• Adult Employment (Age 20+): 152,729,000 (-287,000).
• Teen Employment (Age 16-19): 5,741,000 (+149,000).

Since each of these data series undergoes its own seasonal adjustment, the figures won’t add together as the non-seasonally adjusted data does. For the sake of sanity, here’s that data along with its change from the previous month:

• Total Employment (Age 16+): 158,749,000 (-395,000).
• Adult Employment (Age 20+): 153,247,000 (-475,000).
• Teen Employment (Age 16-19): 5,502,000 (+80,000).

The following chart presents the seasonally-adjusted employment data for the working teen population, breaking down the data for younger teens (Age 16-17) and older teens (Age 18-19).

According to the seasonally-adjusted data, November 2022 saw 43,000 more 16-to-17 year olds successfully gain employment, while the number of working 18-to-19 year olds increased by 115,000 above October 2022’s level. Only the jobs data for Age 16-17 working teens shows a flat-to-downward trend since April 2022. Older teens have experienced an upward employment trend during this period, which has not yet reached its pre-coronavirus recession peak.

Looking at the Age 20+ population, the bulk of reduced employment is taking place in the prime Age 25-54 demographic, with the Age 25-34 and Age 45-54 groups within this population having the biggest reduction in jobs during recent months.

Reference

U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Labor Force Statistics (Current Population Survey – CPS). [Online Database.] Accessed: 2 December 2022.

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