Imagine a 19-year-old—let’s call her Jasmine—who is neither in school nor working. She left high school after a family health crisis and picked up shifts where she could—in a warehouse, food service, and day labor—but nothing stuck.
She hears the same mixed messages everyone hears. College costs too much. Artificial intelligence is coming for entry-level jobs. Employers want experience that no newcomer can have. Meanwhile, rent is due now, not after a pathway finally pays off. She needs a credential that leads to a real profession, not another dead-end training course with a glossy flyer and a thin job pipeline.
Jasmine is fictional, but the situation is not. America has millions of young people like her.
Often called opportunity youth, these young people, age 16–24, are full of potential but disconnected from the two institutions that typically launch a successful life: education and work. A widely cited estimate puts the number of young people who are neither in school nor working at roughly 5.5 million,1 though this number fails to include young people who are only marginally attached—working a few hours a week or taking a single class.
A RAND Corporation longitudinal analysis that followed middle and high school students into young adulthood found that those who became disconnected showed signs of struggling socially and academically in middle and high school. They reported more symptoms of depression, experienced higher rates of substance use and delinquency, and had weaker social support structures.
To understand why the school-to-work pipeline feels broken—even to teenagers still in school—we should start with opportunity youth. They are the clearest signal that our systems don’t just have leaks. In too many communities, the on-ramp to good jobs is missing altogether. The response can’t be another scatter of short-term programs or one more credential with an unclear payoff.
We need clearer routes from learning to earning: training tied to real demand, paid work-based opportunities that build experience, and practical supports—such as coaching, transportation, childcare, and trusted adults—that keep young people connected long enough to build momentum. In short, preventing disconnection requires rebuilding the pathway itself, so the next step is visible, affordable, and worth taking.
