Prepared as a basic background document for an interagency task force on youth employment, this report analyzes youth employment policies and programs for the 1980s. The main body of the report consists of three sections. Section 1, entitled "Policy Perspectives on the Youth Employment Problem," contains a discussion of pathways to career development; detours, delays, and dead ends in youth employment; a sequential and probalistic interpretation of the youth employment problem; the universe of need; and priorities among needs. In section 2, "Lessons from Program Emperience," the following topics are covered: program elements; underlying approaches; delivery, design, and organizational lessons; and management of youth employment and training programs. Section 3, entitled"Restructuring and Reorienting the Youth Employment and Training System," covers new program directions, budget and policy options, and recommendations. Six appendixes, constituting over half the document, provide a graphic analysis of youth employment problems, the employment and training portions of the Youth Act of 1980, program elements, management information systems for the local program, interest group perspectives, and an analysis of youth program resource allocations. (Related reports on educator and employer perspectives and youth perspectives on factors affecting youth employment are available separately through ERIC--see note.) (MN)