A report released by the Urban Institute earlier this month examines the relationship between youth employment and education by racial class. As would be expected, the authors found that graduating high school increases the likelihood of employment and getting more schooling is even better. What they also found, however, was that the impact of getting an education on the likelihood of finding a job is larger for black youths than it is for white youths.

The authors found that when educational attainment is held constant, white youths have a higher employment rate than black youths. In fact, black high school graduates work as much and sometimes even less than white dropouts. However, the impact on employment of getting a high school education was greater for black youth than it was for white youth, both in the likelihood of getting a job and of keeping one for a significant period of time. The impact appears to get greater as the population ages. By the time they turn 22 years old, black youths with a high school diploma on average spent 16% more time working at a full time job than black dropouts, white youths with a high school education only spent 5% more time in full time jobs than white dropouts.

The link between education and health has been covered in our previous posts and both health  and education differ significantly by racial/ethnic class. The results of this report suggest that although education does not completely account for the differences in employment between black and white youths, education is more beneficial to black youths than it is for white. Employment increases not only the likelihood of health insurance but also an income sufficient to afford health-promoting assets like quality housing and nutritious food.