BY KEELIN EVERLY-LANG for WEEKLY VOLCANO | 9/4/2026
Meeting New Challenges for Young Adults Who Are Not in School or Working
Calling all young adults between the ages of 16 and 24 in Pierce County who are not working or enrolled in school: Did you know you are not alone? A report published in May 2026 found that there are approximately 14,000 young adults in your same shoes in Pierce County alone.
The report refers to young people who are not in employment, education, or training as Disconnected Young Adults (DYA), so that’s how we’ll be talking about this as we talk a little bit about challenges and resources.
First, let’s be clear that the value of a person doesn’t come from their ability to contribute labor.
At the same time, in our current societal setup, lack of engagement in employment or education in the early years of adulthood can have serious ramifications down the line and is often due to barriers that can be challenging to overcome alone.
The report found the combination of multiple factors at once, including poverty, disability, early parenthood, and incomplete schooling, to be a big challenge. DYAs are also concentrated in certain areas of Tacoma. Looking at the demographics, the report finds that disconnection hits all demographics, but there is a specific opportunity to engage more young men of color.
The report also found that the percentage of DYAs hasn’t changed much in the past 10 years, meaning that either effective solutions don’t exist or that they do exist but just can’t expand faster than the problem.
Another newer problem is the increasing challenge of AI tools in the hiring pipeline that automatically screen out candidates before a single human has even looked at their resume or spoken to them directly.
In an article from Workforce Central published in April 2026, Director of Young Adult Initiatives Christian Reed describes how many young adults in Pierce County have shared directly that “They do what they’re told to do. They run the job circuit. They search. They network. They attend resume workshops. They submit application after application. Then they hit the job market only to be met with silence or the all-too-familiar line: ‘Unfortunately, you are not a good fit.’”
So what does the report recommend? What programs already exist that are working on these solutions in Pierce County? And how can the community overall take action?
The report highlights five main courses of action:
- Prioritize the post-high-school transition by focusing on dual-enrollment, bridge programs, and early-career exploration opportunities.
- Design specifically for young men of color by centering their experiences and unique barriers.
- Address barriers holistically, pairing workforce and education programming with access to support for other pressing needs.
- Anticipate rising need due to reduced federal funding for safety nets like Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP).
- Prepare young adults for an AI-mediated labor market by integrating digital literacy and AI navigation skills and advocating for hiring practices that center humans over algorithms.
Resources in Pierce County
One great place to start is the young adults page of WorkSource Pierce County. Many of the specific solutions identified by that report are directly addressed through their programs.
Offering a variety of employment and training services specifically for young adults, WorkSource Pierce County shares on its website that it’s served 4,000 young people since 2019.
Their Paid Work Experience Program specifically has a variety of features that can help overcome current barriers. The program pairs local businesses with interns through their Career TEAM program.
Applications are open for both local businesses that are interested in hosting an intern and for young adults who are interested in one of the current opportunities.
There are 50+ opportunities open right now, and young people don’t have to fill out a job application to get started. Instead, they fill out an application directly with the Career TEAM that includes only contact information, a few demographic details, and space to share current barriers to employment.
Interested in an internship learning to make pickles, lead on creative projects and community arts, learn to be a dental assistant, start a career in a warehouse or as a barista or an accounting clerk?
Maybe you like sports and want a job as a coach, or you are passionate about sustainable fashion design or the food industry or event planning or becoming an esthetician.
These are just a few examples of the paid internships currently available on their website, and the program is structured to help match the right person to the right opportunity.
While this program checks almost every box to match the needs in Pierce County, 100 internship openings is a small fraction of the 14,000 young adults that this report has identified.
WorkSource Pierce County does offer a variety of other resources, like career workshops and other employment and education navigation support. The application to connect with an employment specialist is just as easy as the paid internship application.
Several partners are highlighted on the WorkSource Pierce County website, including Palmer Scholars.
Palmer Scholars is another program that specifically features many of the solutions from the DYA report. Their Legacy program serves young adults from junior year in high school through postsecondary program completion, whether that is a university, community or technical college, or an apprenticeship.
Palmer Pathways is for young adults ages 18 to 26 who have an interest in the trades, and Palmer Fit-4-Me is for disconnected young adults ages 16 to 24 who are interested in “learning how to take the next steps for their future.”
For educational opportunities, Pierce College has an Adult Diploma program that “offers curriculum based on the student’s credit needs for achieving their goals.” Tacoma Community College has two high school completion options: one for those under 21, called Fresh Start, that is completely free, and a high school completion program called High School+ that is recommended for those over age 21.
All Basic Education for Adults (BEdA) and English Language Acquisition (ELA) courses at TCC cost only $25 per quarter in tuition, plus $1 per credit for classes, and there are even financial assistance and tuition scholarship opportunities as well if that is out of reach.
There’s one more info session coming up for fall 2026 enrollment for Fresh Start on Tuesday, September 8, from 12 p.m. to 1 p.m. in Building 19, Room 34, at the Tacoma campus of TCC.
If someone has even considered going back to school or finishing an incomplete high school education, community colleges have staff available to answer questions about the process or available programs without any pressure of actually signing up for anything.
With all of these opportunities, there are many ways that all members of the Pierce County community can participate in meeting the needs of disconnected young adults. Small businesses and nonprofits can look into hosting an intern; more seasoned job-seekers can look for opportunities to fill open positions (Palmer Scholars is hiring a Navigator!); and everyone can be part of sharing information widely enough that those who need it can find it.
As with any challenge in our community, compassion and curiosity also go a long way both for yourself and for those around you.
When young adults share that they’ve filled out dozens or hundreds of job applications with no response or are struggling to find their next step, there could be new barriers that you’re unaware of or don’t understand. Starting with a report like the one we’ve talked about today is a good place to start.
This story is part of an editorially independent series of solutions-focused stories about resources for youth and young adults in Pierce County, funded by our Resource Section sponsor Check-In With Yourself WA.
Reach out to keelin@weekly-volcano. com with story pitches or to share your experience as a young adult accessing resources in Pierce County
