America’s youth face a growing challenge of meeting the workforce needs of a nation with an increasingly aging population.
Older Americans will outnumber children for the first time in U.S. history beginning in 2034, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. However, fewer than half of young Americans are working today—a sharp decline from the turn of the 21st century. Since 2000, the employment-to-population ratio of younger Americans ages 16 to 24 has declined by 11.2 percentage points, from 58.9 percent in January 2000 to 48.6 percent in August 2025. This represents a loss of nearly 4.5 million younger workers.
The decline in teen employment has been especially pronounced, falling by 15.6 percentage points since 2000, to just 30.0 percent today. That’s regrettable because teen employment provides experience and life lessons that teach youth the importance of key skills like: showing up on time; demonstrating respect and kindness to co-workers and customers; staying on task even when it is difficult or boring; and disconnecting from screens and interacting face-to-face.
There is a solution: reducing burdensome regulations around apprenticeships.
Government Red Tape Restricts New Apprenticeship Growth
Apprenticeships are a proven pathway for students to gain on-the-job education and training for successful careers and to get paychecks in the process. However, the federal government’s monopoly on apprenticeships, through exceedingly bureaucratic and burdensome Registered Apprenticeship Programs, has prevented apprenticeships from expanding outside the traditional trades, to meet evolving workforce needs. A 2017 Harvard study estimated that the number of occupations commonly filled through apprenticeships could nearly triple (from 27 to 74), that the number of job openings filled through apprenticeships could expand eight-fold (to 3.2 million), and that the occupations ripe for apprenticeship expansion could offer 20 percent higher wages than traditional apprenticeship occupations.
The first Trump Administration addressed those problems by creating an alternative apprenticeship model—driven by industry needs and expertise, and with drastically streamlined regulations—called the Industry Recognized Apprenticeship Program (IRAP). Within a few years, about 130 IRAPs were created with many focused on developing workers for the nursing profession, which continues to face shortages.
However, despite the promise of IRAPs, the Biden Administration cancelled them and instead issued hundreds of pages of proposed new apprenticeship regulations that could have had devastating impacts on apprenticeships and career and technical education in America.
Federal Job Training Programs Have an Unfailing Record of Failure
The federal government also spends billions of dollars each year on more than 40 job training programs that span nine different agencies. These programs consistently fail to provide workers with the education and experience they need to find good jobs.
As an example, an evaluation by the Government Accountability Office of the Workforce Investment Act, which is supposed to provide training for in-demand services, found that only 32 percent of participants found occupations in their area of training, and those who received the full workforce training had lower household incomes and were more likely to be on food stamps than participants who received minimal services.
Regulations and Mandates Reduce Jobs and Compensation
Regulations amount to a tax on worker’s compensation and jobs, and their impact is particularly detrimental in some industries, such as manufacturing. According to a study commissioned by the National Association of Manufacturers, the average overall regulatory costs for manufacturing employers equal $29,100 per employee. Among small manufacturers who have fewer than 50 employees, total regulatory costs equal an estimated $50,100 per employee.
In addition to regulations, government mandates on employers, such as minimum wages, health insurance mandates, and paid leave requirements, increase employers’ costs to levels that prevent certain people—predominantly teenagers and individuals with low education, limited English, or criminal histories—from getting the first jobs they need to climb the career ladder.
To help more of America’s younger workers obtain good jobs, rising incomes, and the dignity of work while meeting the workforce demands of an aging population, policymakers should lower current barriers and open more doors to education opportunities. For example, the Apprenticeship Freedom Act and the Training America’s Workforce Act would expand apprenticeships models. And scaling back failed federal job training programs and excessive higher education subsidies would open up opportunities for more effective education.
Ensuring that young Americans are equipped for meaningful work is not only vital for their dignity and purpose, but for the nation’s long-term economic strength and stability.
