Code for: Soft Skills in the Youth Labor Market

In this paper, we provide new descriptive evidence on how employers value soft skills among a group of entry-level workers facing consistently higher unemployment and disconnection rates: low-income and minority youth (ages 14–24). We also explore whether gender differences in soft skills can help explain why—unlike their older counterparts—young women have better labor market outcomes than young men regardless of whether they are enrolled in school (Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2021). By providing insight into which soft skills contribute the most independent influence on employer impressions of workers, our results can inform both future research and efforts to help young people develop or credibly signal their strengths to potential employers.<br><br>Note that we are not the owners of the data used in this paper and are legally prohibited from sharing data publicly. Only replication code is available; see readme file for details on requesting the data from its owners.