This is the year the recovery finally helped black youth

Labor market indicators specifically focused on young people are interesting because to the 16- to 24-year-old age bracket, essentially all of their economic life has existed since the Great Recession of 2008. There's no new normal for these people, just normal normal.

Bureau of Labor Statistics data

According to the latest numbers from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, a years-long trend toward increased employment among white youths has been joined by a leap in Latino youth employment and an enormous jump in black youth employment.

Given the huge black-white racial gap in youth employment, you might think this goes to show that the recovery has been weaker for black youth than for white youth. But that's actually not the case.

Black youth summer employment rate has fully rebounded from recession slump. h/t @conorsen pic.twitter.com/Xo48fTzs1R

— Ben Casselman (@bencasselman) August 18, 2015

With this latest surge, black youth employment has fully recovered to its pre-recession level. It's low today due to whatever big social and structural factors kept it low 10 years ago.

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