As is well known, young people are still bearing the brunt of the recession. The employment rate for youth aged 15-24 last month was 55.6 per cent, well down from 60.3 per cent back before the recession in September 2008 due to an increase in unemployment and an increase in those not looking for work. And the proportion of youth in part-time jobs has risen.

The table above -- data calculated by my colleague Sylvain Schetagne from the Labour Force Survey micro data file -- provides some interesting detail on those in this age group still living at home. (We are responsible for the computations and interpretation.)

The June labor market report announced that the unemployment rate is down from 9.7 to 9.5 percent and 83,000 private-sector jobs were created in June. Unfortunately, the situation isn’t quite so rosy. As Annie Lowrey reports for The Washington Independent, the real cause of the drop in unemployment was not more jobs, but fewer workers. Hundreds of thousands of unemployed Americans have now been reclassified as “discouraged” workers who have not actively searched for work for four weeks. As such, they are no longer part of the system.