Since World War II, unemployment rates for black youths have risen much more rapidly than for white youths. This report reviews possible causes of the worsening relative employment status of black youths, including market and structural trends in the sizes of labor force entry cohorts, competition in the low-wage labor market from women and students, the level and coverage of the minimum wage, occupational and industrial structure, and the geographic distribution of jobs. Social and demographic trends in school enrollment, armed forces enlistment, marriage and family norms, and receipt of public assistance are also considered. It is suggested that historical differences between blacks and whites in the occupational sectors in which they worked, in school enrollment patterns, and in military enlistment patterns concealed the true racial disparity in youth unemployment because black youth entered the work force before whites and found work in the agricultural sector. Now that black and white school enrollment and military enlistment norms are more alike and unskilled jobs scarcer, it is held, the true inequality in employment is revealed. (Author/MK)