Transitions to Work for Racial, Ethnic, and Immigrant Groups

Deborah S. Reed, Public Policy Institute of California (PPIC)
Christopher Jepsen, Public Policy Institute of California (PPIC)
Laura Hill, Public Policy Institute of California (PPIC)

The youth population of the United States is becoming increasingly diverse in terms of race, ethnicity, and nativity. We demonstrate that the patterns of transition from school-age to work-age are substantially different across demographic groups. For foreign-born youth, we explore school attendance and work behavior by origin and age of arrival. For U.S.-born youth, we use longitudinal data to investigate the determinants of racial and ethnic differences in educational attainment, work, and teen fertility. We also explore the association between poor starts for youth and future outcomes. We argue that the diversity of the youth population has important consequences for designing and evaluating programs for youth.