Economy hits teen workers hard

BOSTON, Nov. 9 (UPI) -- In the past year, the share of 16- to 19-year-olds working fell by 8 percent, the largest decline of any age group in the U.S. workforce, an analyst says.

The New York Times reported Sunday it is unlikely the economic outlook for youths and low-skilled workers will improve any time soon.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported Friday that 240,000 jobs disappeared in October alone, bringing the unemployment rate to 6.5 percent.

"Low-income people are the big losers when the economy turns down," said Andrew Sum, director of the Center for Labor Market Studies at Northeastern University in Boston.

The newspaper reported that among those ages 16 to 19, access to jobs has declined through the past 10 years. By last month, just 31.4 percent of the age group had held some sort of employment. Meanwhile, the number of people over 65 in the workforce over the last year grew, Sum said.

Sum predicts teens in the year ahead will be "thrown out of the labor market at record levels."