By Olivia Golden and David Hansell

(Excerpt)

Our nation’s post-pandemic success hinges on an economic recovery targeting those hit hardest by the recession and overlooked by the pre-pandemic economy: children, youth, and their families, particularly in communities of color.

Before the pandemic, children and young adults had the highest poverty rates of all U.S. age groups — with disproportionately high rates among children and young people of color. Young workers, particularly Black youth, faced extraordinarily high pandemic unemployment rates: Job loss peaked at over 30 percent in May 2020, when most young workers would typically pick up summer jobs. Women, Black and Latinx workers, who are overrepresented in the low-wage workforce, already faced economic insecurity before the pandemic. Forty percent of this workforce was raising children, and nearly a quarter was under age 25.

Read the full op-ed here.