After rising to 14.7 percent in April, the unemployment rate is back to 7.9 percent, clearly a significant and rapid rebound. A broader measure that better captures current labor market conditions—by adjusting for mistaken characterizations of job status, and for the decline in labor force participation since February—is running around 11 percent. The burdens of the downturn have not been evenly shared.
It is in this context that today, we are implementing a comprehensive economic and financial education program that covers children, teenagers, and adults. I will discuss its components briefly.