Recession creating a lost generation: only 46 percent of 16-24 year-olds have jobs

[steven johnson]

Fewer than half of all Americans aged 16 to 24 had jobs in September, the lowest number since record keeping began in 1948. Young people are hurting in the current economic slump. Employers and baby boomers are sitting tight delaying hiring and retiring. Young people from across the developed world can't find jobs. It's tough out there.

In the U.S., the unemployment rate for 16- to 24-year-olds has climbed to more than 18 percent, from 13 percent a year ago.

For people just starting their careers, the damage may be deep and long-lasting, potentially creating a kind of "lost generation." Studies suggest that an extended period of youthful joblessness can significantly depress lifetime income as people get stuck in jobs that are beneath their capabilities, or come to be seen by employers as damaged goods.

Only 46 percent of people aged 16-24 had jobs in September, the lowest since the government began counting in 1948. The crisis is even hitting recent college graduates. "I've applied for a whole lot of restaurant jobs, but even those, nobody calls me back," says Dan Schmitz, 25, a University of Wisconsin graduate with a bachelor's degree in English who lives in Brooklyn, N.Y. "Every morning I wake up thinking today's going to be the day I get a job. I've not had a job for months, and it's getting really frustrating."

According to a BusinessWeek analysis, college graduates aged 22 to 27 have fared worse than their older educated peers during the downturn. Two years ago, 84.4 percent of young grads had jobs, only somewhat lower than the 86.8 percent figure for college graduates aged 28 to 50. Since then, the employment gap between the two groups has almost doubled.


Recession creating a lost generation

[aint_no_life_nowhere]

1. I feel very bad for these young people

College seems to have become so much more expensive then when I was young. How are these young people going to pay off their massive student loans, qualify to buy their first house, pay for healthcare, and start a family in these tough times?

[Warren Stupidity]

2. Ok but the unemployment rate for 16-24 is 18 percent.

So the headline is just a bit alarmist and misleading. For example around 22% of that group is in high school - and mostly not in the job market. Another huge junk (> 27% 18-22) is in college and also basically not looking for work.

Still 18% is high, although again that is 18% over a 'normal' level of 13% - in other words perhaps a bit worse than the overall increase in unemployment during this severe recession, but not alarmingly out of line.

[melnjones]

4. thank you. nt

[eridani]

14. A lot of that is because young people are staying in school--

--precisely because the job market sucks.

[melnjones]

3. in my area,

which by the way is NOT doing well during this downturn (beat most areas to it by a few years actually), I'm watching tons of college educated people in this age group (which I am barely out of by the way) not applying for available jobs b/c they aren't what they studied in college. We have tons of call center jobs that are constantly hiring, and I have tons of unemployed friends. Makes zero sense to me. I'm not generalizing our area to the rest of the country, just saying that here there is a factor of laziness and elite-ness weighing heavily on the unemployment rate. Now, underemployment rate, that's a different story.

[madrchsod]

6. this has happened before to college grads

i think it`s the idea with the field of education they have they should be able to get a job. rude awaking is the ten`s of thousands of dollars worth of education in a certain field is`t going to buy a job. my son was going to be a network administrator until the dot com bust...20+ thousand and he`s working on a printing press. my son went into printing and used his tech knowledge to upgrade the computer systems that run the press.

the economy will turn around and the college grads will find jobs but it may not be what they expect.

[barb162]

18. Several young adults I know with BAs are going to school again

for RN training as they want to make some money, including my niece. A young adult with a pharmacy degree had multiple great offers last year.

[Yehonala]

8. I do See Small Stuff

I do see jobs advertised in the papers, mainly in the skilled trades. In the small papers they have stuff too. Plus there are always places taking volunteers. There's really no better way to buff the resume than to do volunteering. Plus you gain references and there are small perks.

[melnjones]

9. It's quite shocking here (central Indiana)

the amount of jobs popping up. Our economy and our cost of living have both nose-dived over the last decade, and now companies are realizing we are a prime place to put call centers of various sorts b/c they can pay us low wages. Thing is, we can live on $8-10 an hour here, where as you can't in DC or Chicago or most of the coasts. And many of these jobs have EXCELLENT benefits- I just applied for long term care insurance that I'll be able to carry with me even after i leave my job, and my job matches 401k contributions up to %5. Great health insurance, Employee Assistance Program with free mental health and legal consults, work-out room on site with locker rooms and showers, even domestic partner benefits. And two months ago we all got a $1/hr raise in our base pay. The job? Basically, collections. Our area has other call centers in customer service, troubleshooting for electronics, etc. Our job is high stress, high stress, did I mention high stress, and not glamorous, and doesn't require a degree, and most of my friends refuse to even consider it, would rather whine that there are no jobs and only apply in their respective fields of expertise. In the meantime, I'm perfectly happy being cussed out daily (and actually getting to help quite a few people in the process) and paying my bills.

[Yehonala]

10. I Have a small job

I have a small job cocktail waitressing a couple hours on Friday and Saturday nights, my volunteer work, and before I was employed I've spent time building business connections and my resume is much better than it's ever been. I have six personal and four professional references and with my SSD I am doing pretty well. Good buffer and plenty of stretch time. While I live off of that I'll be signing up to volunteer and build my resume even more. Too many people are bone idle, waiting for Obama to save them and that's where the problems set in. No one is goign to save you but you. A degree is worth nothing without references and basic skills.

I need to rebuild a lot of things in my life before I'm ready to go back to being formally employed, but I am not being idle. I wonder how many of your friends have degrees that are even useful. We must be weirdos. The biggest problem is with the financial sector and people who have made their livings and put their savings into Wall Street, but that was their choice. While there is a need for reform, people need to start looking realistically at their prospects.

[melnjones]

13. Waiting for someone to save them...

Exactly, and I see it getting worse and worse. And I don't mean this as a stab at Obama, as I'm not saying it's his fault...but it's almost like some people get a free pass to not have to try anymore b/c the recession makes a good excuse. I do wish that Obama would use his voice of authority to encourage people to be more active and productive, rather than using only a voice of compassion. He's a new president, so hopefully finding that balance will come with time.

I was mid masters degree (in divinity, ministry) when I took time out to start working again full time b/c i was getting scared of my student loan debt, which was ever-increasing. So, that's the degree a lot of my friends have. My bachelors is in social work and I see to a lesser degree the same problem with some of those classmates. If only we all had the critical thinking skills to know that the knowledge learned in both these fields is applicable to a wide variety of other fields of employment. I use it daily in my job, and am successful because of it.

[Art_from_Ark]

16. I applied for a "call center" job once--

it was actually a telemarketing operation (magazine sales) earning minimum wage during the 2-week training session, and then strictly commission after that. :puke:

Another call center "job" I applied for was just looking for applications, just in case something opened up 6-12 months down the road :puke:.

For yet another "call center" job I applied for, I was asked to come in for a personal interview twice, but it never went farther than that.

Also, why do you think call centers are "constantly hiring"? It's not because the number of call center jobs is constantly growing.

[madrchsod]

5. my 24 yr old daughter is the only one in her circle that has health insurance

two others that are full time do not have insurance. a couple have part time dead end jobs and 10-12 others have no jobs and can`t find anything at all.

so out of 17-20 or so friends, she`s the only one with health insurance.

[izquierdista]

7. "I've not had"??

There's your problem, Dan, you phrased that in correct English. Had you said "I needs me some work, man" employers would know that you were no threat to rise above minimum wage and they would be glad to give you a job shoveling shit.

[customerserviceguy]

11. It would also behoove him to leave that bachelor's degree in English

off his resume for restaurant jobs.

Frankly, unless you have the bucks to go for the masters or doctorate, and have a faint hope of getting a job as a professor, why do people bother going for bachelor's degrees in English in the first place?

[izquierdista]

12. Ask Garrison Keillor

He has lots of good material on the value of an English major.

[tama]

15. Book of Job

12-13 "Why has your heart carried you away, and why do your eyes flash, so that you vent your rage against God and pour out such words from your mouth?"

Why is it so readily assumed that less jobs, consumerism, growth of GDP and and destruction of carrying of Earth is a bad thing, and that more jobs, more consumerism, more growth of GPD and more and more destruction of carrying capacity is what we need progressively more and more and more?

If now a whole "generation is lost" to the corporate capitalism of more growth, consumerism and destruction of carrying capacity of Earth and a new generation finds this way of life a dead end and finds some other, why lament, why not rejoice?

[barb162]

17. Now there's a truly sickening statistic. n/t