This month, Sen. Bernie Sanders unveiled the "Employ Young Americans Now Act," which would help states and local government employ 1 million youth from ages 16 to 24 and provide job training to hundreds of thousands of young Americans who have no job prospects.

“We cannot continue to ignore the crisis of youth unemployment in America.  We are talking about the future of an entire generation,” Sanders said. “We have got to make sure that young people in Washington, D.C., and all over this country have the opportunity to earn a paycheck and to make it into the middle class.”

In a study prepared at Sanders' request, the Economic Policy Institute found that during the year from April of 2014 to March of 2015, the real unemployment rate for black high school graduates (ages 17-20) was 51.3 percent. The jobless figure for Hispanics in the same age group was 36.1 percent and for white youths the number was 33.8 percent.

“It is beyond comprehension that we, as a nation, have not focused attention on the fact that millions of young people are unable to find work and begin their careers in a productive economy,” Sanders said. “We cannot turn our backs on this national tragedy.”

Sanders linked high unemployment to incarceration rates. A recent Sentencing Project study projected that one in three black males are likely to be imprisoned at some point in their life.

He added, "The answer to unemployment and poverty is not and cannot be the mass incarceration of young African Americans. It's time to bring hope and economic opportunity to communities across the country."

Read about the bill's unveiling here.

Read about the EPI study here.

Read a factsheet on the bill here.

Read the bill here.