Health and youth employment

The employment of 6.4 % of United States teenagers and young adults is limited by their health. These young people are less likely to have jobs than youths without health problems. Also, they work fewer hours per week than the youth average, although they earn as much per hour as youths without health limitations. The differences in satisfaction and prestige that youths enjoy from their jobs are not related to the presence of health conditions. Youths who reported health conditions lasting their entire lives are more likely to have jobs than young people recently acquiring their conditions. These relationships are derived from analyses of responses of 11 412 civilian noninstitutionalized youths to the 1979 Youth Survey of the National Longitudinal Surveys of Labor Force Behavior.