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(May 13, 2021) -- San Antonio had an above average youth employment rate, then the pandemic struck. Among the top 50 metro areas, San Antonio youth experienced the 8th largest drop in employment in the first year of the pandemic, according to national data research organization Mathematica. What explains this decrease? The top job sectors employing high school students were the hardest hit in the pandemic's local economic downturn, based on a new study commissioned by SA Works and conducted by The University of Texas at San Antonio (UTSA) Urban Education Institute (UEI).
Prior to the COVID-19 outbreak, nearly three out of four students worked for pay at some point during their high school years, according to the study, which analyzed employment trends of approximately 211,000 Bexar County high school students. The project, the first of its kind locally, was a collaboration between the Urban Education Institute and SA Works, the workforce development team within the San Antonio Economic Development Foundation. Funded by The USAA Foundation, Inc., it analyzed employment patterns of Bexar County high school students across nearly two decades.