About the speaker: 

Yuci Chen joined the Upjohn Institute in 2020 after receiving her PhD in economics from University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. She is a labor economist interested in issues related to inequality, poverty, firm behavior, and education. Her current research focuses on understanding the effects of anti-poverty policies, such as minimum wage and the earned income tax credit, on labor market. Her current research also involves understanding young people's educational choices, and why some young people end up disconnecting from the education system and labor market.

Abstract: 

This paper documents the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on youth disconnection. Youth disconnection has been an issue in the United States for decades. Before the pandemic, approximately one out of eight young people between the ages of 18 and 24 were reported to be neither in school nor at work. The disconnection rate increased dramatically because of the pandemic; in April, 2020, one out of four young people were reported to be disconnected. The increase in the disconnection is mostly driven by the decline in full-time jobs, and we do not find a change in the share of young adults in school. The impact of the pandemic differed across states: states with larger death-to-population ratios experienced larger increases in disconnection rates.