The labor market prospects of out-of-school young adults and options for improving the employment and earnings potential of all young adults were examined. The following issues were among those considered: demographic and social factors affecting young adults' employment prospects; employment trends and labor market problems in the United States in 1989-1999; and trends in the real weekly earnings of employed young adults. The analysis revealed that, although most young adults have benefited from the improved labor market conditions of the 1990s, many out-of-school young adults, especially those with no postsecondary schooling, continue to encounter severe difficulties in obtaining access to career jobs. The following were among the main conclusions: (1) keeping young people in school with continuous learning gains remains the most promising avenue for increasing the economic, social, and personal betterment of the nation's young adults; (2) remaining in school and performing successfully depends on earlier acquisition of basic academic skills and literacy/numeracy proficiencies; and (3) for those who have left formal schooling, employer-provided job training remains a proven strategy for improving the labor market prospects of out-of-school young adults. (One hundred twenty tables/figures are included. The methodology used to estimate the number of 18- to 24-year old male inmates is appended. Contains 286 footnotes.) (MN)