Young adults were especially vulnerable: Before the pandemic they held 15 percent of the jobs in the service industries that would be hardest hit.

The disparities

The setbacks have especially hurt young adults who are Black, Hispanic or do not have a college degree; those workers have even higher rates of unemployment than younger people as a whole, a recent report found. They are also more likely to be struggling because their families lack resources to support them.

The consequences

My colleague Winnie Hu spoke with experts who warned that the consequences of losing a job as a young worker — including lower wages, fewer prospects and long-term hardship — may reverberate for years.

“On top of that, the economy is going to suffer,” said Stephanie Aaronson, a vice president and director of economic studies at the Brookings Institution. “It holds back economic growth.”

The outlook

State and city officials are working to help through existing job programs. But the challenges have been so vast that some social service agencies and community groups are choosing to hire young people themselves, instead of steering them elsewhere.

Knowledge Westbrooks, 23, was hired by a community group in Brooklyn after he was laid off from a warehouse job. “I wasn’t able to pay for food and stuff so I had to try to figure out another opportunity,” he told Ms. Hu.