This brief discusses trends in youth employment and workforce development to set the context for efforts to improve economic outcomes for New York City (NYC) foster youth. Several common measures have moved in positive directions in recent years. The number and rate of youth disconnected from school and work has dropped as has the youth unemployment rate, while hourly wage rates have risen. However, these improvements mask some troubling trends showing high youth unemployment and stagnant earnings as well as racial and geographic disparities. NYC has a robust set of youth workforce initiatives, including several targeted at foster youth. Workforce experts credit these programs for contributing to improvements, but the absence of greater gains among youth during the tightest labor market on record is cause for concern. The negative impact of the COVID-19 pandemic will likely affect low-income youth of color disproportionately, erasing nearly all progress made in the rate of disconnection and increasing youth unemployment to pre-recession levels.