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Unemployment rates for Americans under the age of 25 are the highest since the end of World War II. It's a situation that is unlikely to change anytime soon, according to a new report.

Since 2007, the average official unemployment rate for people under 25 has been 18 percent, 5.5 points higher than for the preceding 15 years, according to Bureau of Labor Statistics figures. This would seem to make the 16.2 percent rate for March look like an improvement.

The kids are not alright. So not alright, in fact, that about 45 percent of the nation’s unemployed are between the ages of 18 and 34, according to a recent report from Demos, a public policy organization. In addition to the more than 5.6 million young people who don’t have a job, there are about 4.7 million young employees who are underemployed or working in jobs for which they’re overqualified, the report found.

Once you get your hard-earned dollars into your 401(k), it’s painful to think they might not begetting you the highest return possible. Before you go any further, those who aren’t contributing regularly to a 401(k) or another type of tax-advantaged retirement account, such as a Traditional or Roth IRA, need to start now. While making that 10 or 15 percent contribution from your paycheck can be tough, there’s no excuse to not plan for supporting yourself in your old age.

In the past few years, there has been a disturbing push in a number of states toward limiting the right to vote and raising barriers to participation in democracy. Not in Connecticut. When it comes to ensuring an inclusive and fair democracy that guarantees every voice is heard, our state has been a real leader and taken important steps forward.

Sixty years ago, the key sectors of Americans society -- business, labor, and government -- often worked well together to grow the U.S. economy. CEOs understood that giving workers a fair of the wealth they created was good business, since it motivated labor to do its absolute best. Elected officials of both parties understood that government's role was to fan growth by building the public structures that undergird prosperity -- like state university systems and the Interstate Highway System.

If you’ve ever been there, it won’t come as a surprise that Montana leads the nation in wind energy potential. Most of the state's sites are in low population and rural areas that are well-suited for wind development because there is not the same level of objection to visual impact and the areas would benefit from economic development. To support its wind industry, Montana’s Renewable Portfolio Standard requires regulated utilities to purchase 15 percent of their electricity supply from renewable sources by 2015.

Massive fraud in the high-speed trading markets is escaping detection because regulators and exchanges are dithering on a powerful supercomputer to uncover the scams, The Post has learned.

And as retail investors begin dipping their toes back into stocks, now at record prices, the market watchdogs are asleep at the wheel.

Washington frets endlessly over the problems that Social Security and Medicare, both of which are projected to exhaust their trust funds in the coming decades, might cause the budget. But two new reports underscore the serious problems they might solve for the country.

Take Social Security. For years, pension experts have spoken of the “three-legged stool” of retirement savings: Social Security, employer pensions and private savings. In recent years, however, that stool has begun to wobble, and today, Social Security is basically the only leg holding it up.

An influential state lawmaker in North Carolina is launching an effort to make it harder for his state’s citizens to vote. It’s a development that should trouble voters, especially because North Carolina’s election process has been improving lately.