The state of the American economy continues to dominate the news, but one statistic is startling and demands our attention ─ the number of employed youth is at the lowest rate since the 1950s.

Today only one in four youth has a job compared with about one in two just a decade ago. It is especially troubling that 6.5 million people, ages 16 to 24, are both out of school and out of work. These statistics point toward future struggles for financial stability and long term employment challenges. We must act now to reverse these trends.

In fact, according to Youth and Work: Restoring Teen and Young Adult Connection to Opportunity, a new Annie E. Casey Foundation report, only 33 percent of Arkansas youth ages 16-19 were employed in 2011 (the most recent year for which data is available). For 20-24-year-olds, the unemployment rate is 35 percent. These youth are veering toward chronic underemployment and failing to gain the skills necessary to succeed in a 21st century workforce.

This generation of young people is encountering more difficulty getting critical early work experience due to greater competition from older workers for increasingly scarce entry-level jobs. Many lack the higher skill set required for well-paying jobs. And many of these youth have hurdles beyond their control, such as growing up in poverty, having few working adult role models, attending low-performing schools and living with only one parent.

Arkansas Advocates for Children and Families recognizes that we need to create new and innovative programs to help these youth succeed. We hope Arkansas will create opportunities for these young people to gain early job experience, through community service and internships, part-time or summer work programs; work with businesses to hire young people, or work with public-private investors to develop new opportunities for these youth.

At AACF, we are committed to helping these teens and young adults get back on the path to a better economic future for themselves and their children. This will take a coordinated effort among our state leaders, non-profit organizations and our businesses to make this vision a reality. Growing our young people’s talents is vital to ensure that our nation can compete in the global economy. Now is the time to create opportunities so all of Arkansas young people can attain the American dream of economic prosperity.