Poll: In down economy, education key to youth jobs

Christopher Cadaret's been fixing TVs and stereos for fun since he was 10 years old and thinks he'd like to work in electronics or auto repair. But four months after he dropped out of high school, he can't find a job of any kind.

He's tried a local electronics company, the hardware store, the dollar store, the minimart. Nothing.

"I'm seeking work, anything that is put in front of me," said Cadaret, 18, who lives with his father in Burkesville, Ky., a small town amid the hills and farmland along the Tennessee border. He started looking for a job at 16. Without that first toehold on work, his dream of earning enough to save up for technical training seems far away.

The nation's economic upheaval has been especially hard on young people trying to start their working lives with a high school education or less. In a new Associated Press-Viacom survey, only about a third of the 18- to 24-year-olds who aren't in school said they have full-time jobs.

Less than a quarter of them work part-time, leaving 4 in 10 unemployed.