Government policies are creating unemployment among young (and the rest of us)

Over the weekend, the Journal’s front page carried an interesting article on the difficulties facing young people in finding gainful employment.

It is no surprise that unemployment rates for young people are higher than for the general population. These are, after all, unskilled workers with short employment histories and lower education levels as a group. But, the sad thing is that minimum wages force employers to either overpay young people or not hire them at all. In a weak economy, they tend to not hire at all.

Economist Walter Williams, a national treasure in my opinion, was on John Stossel’s show last week. He explains in the following interview why things like minimum wages and licensing laws actually hurt minorities and young people by forcing them out of certain jobs: