Measure of America

Young people and Houston’s economy (Dec. 4, 2025) | Houston Public Media As Houston grows, are large portions of the city’s younger population missing out on the economic opportunities? A recent report digs into that question.

@alex-powers.bsky.social, associate director of @measureofamerica.bsky.social, discussed MOA's new report on youth disconnection, "Building Bright Futures in Greater Houston," on @houstonpublicmedia.bsky.social this morning:

www.houstonpublicmedia.org/articles/sho...

Houston has worst rate of unemployed, uneducated young moms At 13.3%, Houston has the worst rate of young adults who are neither working nor in school of the largest metro areas in the country.

Read the story and report here:
www.texastribune.org/2025/12/02/t...
measureofamerica.org/houston/

This work, produced in partnership with with ACAM, GHOYC, and the William Stamps Farish Fund, is the culmination of a long development process & we are glad that it is drawing attention to the need in Houston to build pathways for all young people to have second chances and realize their potential

Two other key findings are featured: young people as a whole in Houston are far more disconnected from work and school than the US as a whole or other metro areas; and of the well-paying jobs in the Houston area that don’t require a BA, 3 in 4 are held by young men.

The Texas Tribune released a story this week by Sneha Dey about the barriers to school and work that young mothers in Houston face. This story features research from our report, Building Bright Futures in Greater Houston, that highlights this issue, among others.

The report is now live!

Read it on our website:
measureofamerica.org/houston/

KEY FINDING 5: In Greater Houston, 36,400 young adults 16 to 24 who have a high school diploma but no bachelor’s or higher degree have jobs that earn more than $40,000 annually. The vast majority of these jobs are held by men.

KEY FINDING 4: An unusually high share of all young people in Greater Houston haven’t worked in the last five years: 35.8 percent of youth and young adults in Houston have never worked or last worked more than five years ago. This group has a disconnection rate of 53.4 percent.

KEY FINDING 3: One in four opportunity youth in Greater Houston are Hispanic girls or young women (33,000 across the 13 County Region).

KEY FINDING 2: The disconnection rate among mothers in the 16- to 24-year-old age range, 41.7 percent, is much higher than that of young women without children, 10.8 percent.

Of the top 25 most populous metro areas in the United States, Greater Houston has the highest disconnection rate.

KEY FINDING 1: In Greater Houston, 13.3 percent of youth and young adults ages 16 to 24 are not in school and not working, 124,500 total. This is 2.4 percentage points higher than the national rate (10.9 percent) and higher than the rate in Texas as a whole (12.5 percent).

LAUNCHING SOON: Our forthcoming report, Building Bright Futures in Greater Houston, will be released tonight. In advance of that, we will share some of the report’s key findings in this thread.

NEW REPORT: Measure of America released Youth Disconnection in The Rapides Foundation Service Area 2025, the latest edition in our series focusing on opportunity youth in rural central Louisiana produced in partnership with The Rapides Foundation.

Read here:
measureofamerica.org/youth-discon...

Half a million young Californians aren’t in school or work. Most are men If you ask Jodeah Wilson how his life got off track, he’ll say it’s all about money.

Half a million young Californians aren't in school or work. Most are men

Half a million young Californians aren’t in school or work. Most are men In California thousands of young men are in crisis — not working and not in school. Helping them requires a multi-faceted approach.

Director Kristen Lewis was quoted in the article and emphasized the importance of support systems for young people and the need for different pathways to reconnection.

Read the full article here: calmatters.org/economy/2025...

Measure of America research on youth disconnection was used in a recent @calmatters.org article on disconnection in California, spotlighting particularly high rates for Black and Native young men.

DATA2GO.NYC - Measure of America: A Program of the Social Science Research Council DATA2GO.NYC is a free, interactive tool that lets you explore over 400 indicators related to human well-being and inequality across New York City's nearly 200 neighborhoods.

We're also offering free demos of DATA2GO.NYC to show interested users the tool’s new indicators and other features. You can sign up now for a demo on either October 9th, 12-1pm or October 15th, 1-2pm. Learn more and register: measureofamerica.org/d2g-landing/. Feel free to share with your networks!

DATA2GO.NYC Data Clinic Application Thank you for your interest in our Data Clinic! We will begin reviewing applications on a rolling basis, and the deadline to submit your application is Monday, October 20, 2025.

Participants will get to create their own projects using data that are relevant to their needs. The program will consist of four workshops from October 29th to November 19th. Applications are open and close on October 20th—sign up for free now: forms.gle/j6vruXg2Mt9P...

Measure of America is hosting a second round of our Technical Assistance Data Clinic for NYC nonprofits. This free, interactive program is designed to empower New York City nonprofit leaders to use data to better target their services, increase their impact, and communicate their results.

No job, no degree? No problem. Las Vegas has answers for ‘disconnected youth.’ A sizable number of young adults in the U.S. are not in school or employed. In Las Vegas, a coalition is working to reconnect 30,000 of them by 2030. Doing so could grow the Nevada economy by $17 bill...

Our research, referenced in the article, shows that among young adults 22–24 years old, young women are disconnected at a higher rate than young men, 15.2% compared to 13.8%, and have steeper on-ramps to well-paying jobs that don’t require a bachelor’s degree.

www.csmonitor.com/USA/Educatio...

Measure of America research on youth disconnection informed a @csmonitor.bsky.social article highlighting Las Vegas programs working to reduce the city’s 14.8% disconnection rate. Director Kristen Lewis drew attention to girls & young women, who can be overlooked in conversations about reconnection.

Participatory Demography: Core Values - The Broadsheet Local Metrics Document Extra Years, Few Divorces, But Unstable Housing

Their first article featured Measure of America data on human development and other core statistics. Keep an eye out for future articles that will cover health, education, public safety, and more!

Read the article here:
www.ebroadsheet.com/participator...

Participatory Demography: Core Values - The Broadsheet Local Metrics Document Extra Years, Few Divorces, But Unstable Housing

We’re excited that Lower Manhattan’s local newspaper, The Broadsheet, is starting a new series sharing insights about life in Lower Manhattan using data from DATA2GO.NYC.

Measure of America presented at JobsFirstNYC’s Adapting to the Future of Work convening last week. Tara Shawa and Kate Harvey presented about how DATA2GO.NYC can be used to inform workforce development strategies.

We enjoyed working with you to incorporate local data and mapping into reengagement plans; and are looking forward to summarizing this work in our annual report!

We were thrilled to participate at the National Youth Employment Coalition annual forum in May alongside our wonderful co-presenters, Andrew Moore, Rachel Snyder, and Emily Norris.

As we start writing our annual report on youth disconnection, we’re thankful for our collaboration with Andrew Moore, and all the communities we’ve engaged through the National League of Cities and in the course of our other work.

Beyond degrees: Empowering Illinoisans through career-first education Published June 3, 2025 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY The best path to empowerment and success, especially for poor people, is work. Work allows us to prosper while providing dignity, upward mobility, the means to...

Read more here: www.illinoispolicy.org/reports/beyo...

This new report from the Illinois Policy Institute emphasizes investing in a career-first educational system to promote upward mobility. Measure of America data on youth disconnection are referenced to underline the importance of connecting young people to opportunities aside from four-year college