Posted on 06/28/2013 1:06:07 PM PDT by SeekAndFind
It’s tough being a young worker in today’s difficult job market. But if your parents tell you it was even tougher when they were your age, don’t roll your eyes and write them off. They might just be right.
A common predicament among recent college grads is the difficulty finding professional work that matches their qualifications. Some hold out and refuse to take a job for which they’re overqualified, which is why the unemployment rate for recent grads, at about 6%, is higher than the rate for college grads as a whole, which is only about 4%.
A bigger problem, however, is underemployment. Many new diploma holders need a paycheck, no matter how small, so they take jobs that don’t require a college degree, such as retail clerk, waiter, barista, or medical technician. Nearly 45% of college students who graduated during the last five years count as underemployed in this manner, according to new data compiled by economists at the New York Federal Reserve.
That sounds high—but it was even higher during the mid-1990s, when the economy was also recovering from a recession. Back then, the underemployment rate among recent college grads was nearly 50 percent, or a few points higher than it is now. That’s peculiar because the 1990-1991 recession was mild, whereas the 2007-2009 recession we’re still recovering from was severe. By most other economic measures, the recent recession was the worst since the 1930s.
There was nothing unusual about the economy in the 1990s that punished college grads. In fact, it was typical back then for recent grads to toil beneath their standing, as it were, before finding better work and starting a career. “It’s not unusual for a significant share of college grads to be working in a job that doesn't require a degree,”
(Excerpt) Read more at finance.yahoo.com ...
That’s such an illustrative story. It demonstrates what big eduction is just a self fulfilling racket....that lives to create new customers for itself. Colleges should be required to hire people who’ve actually worked OUTSIDE of academics for 20 years (school districts too). When the end of eduction, is just to stay in education, then the entire thing is a phony crony ponzi scheme by definition.
Teachers get raises by going back to school for more degrees, which of course creates more customers for grad schools....and on and on the entire thing festers.
149% in some precincts.....
Tragic. That kid sounds like a total lost cause.
The whole college sales pitch is that education and not hard work is the key to success. Now if you just paid $50 - 100k for your education you probably don’t want to accept a position that “anyone” could apply. I blame employers who do no mentor these students during college or after graduation. It’s easier to hire illegals and go offshore that to develop talent, The same employers often complain that there are not enough skilled workers, Maybe education needs to partner with business, But education doesn’t see themselves as making workers skilled.....
I wuz able to convince my DB that I was not suitable as either an order taker nor order giver (way too much a cowboy type as outlined by the 50’s media), so I worked for the (para-military) Boy Scouts and then for the DOD as a civilian.
many companies that will pay him what he’s worth.”
My father used to tell me that I was only worth what my employer was willing to pay me. Of course, he was born in 1898 and had lived through lots of years of very hard times. As far back as I can remember he always had two full time jobs until he died in 1975 plus we had a small farm.
lousy degrees lead to lousy (if any) jobs
it is really that simple.
students who are going to college for job preparation ... should take job-prep majors like engineering or nursing.
students who just take sociology and ethnic studies and cultural anthropology and, worst of all, “community organizing” (whatever the hell that is), render themselves unemployable.
and if pushed for an honest answer, the very same students would have to admit that They wouldn’t hire themselves, either
they bring nothing of any value to the workplace
The mistake is in thinking that a good formal education automatically entitles someone to a good job.
It doesn’t and shouldn’t. A good education merely means that you are educated.
Having received a formal education, you should now expect to go to work on the shop floor and learn some business from the ground up. That is the real education that will build on your formal education and give it meaning. You’ve got a degree in Medieval French Literature? Great. Now get to work oiling the machinery and in a few years, if you’re smart, you may wind up running this place. Or not.
Chemical and petroleum engineers are at $130,000 a year.
L Who does the kid think he is? Peter Pan?
Anyway the guy had a black dog named Whitey!!”
We moved into what was, at the time, considered a rather upscale neighborhood several years ago in Lenexa, Kansas. Originally all the residents were Caucasian, had children and very family oriented.
Then a Black couple moved in with their very large white dog. HOA regs allowed either no fence or a wooden privacy one. No one had fences because the neighborhood boys all played baseball and football in the wide open yard area. They put in a chain link fence. It’s probably still there. BTW, he was an attorney.
“Tragic. That kid sounds like a total lost cause.”
Gender studies and poetry? Sounds like a queer combination to me.
And not at all employable for anything.
I dunno. I just graduated with a family nurse practitioner degree and have an interview this weekend and, gosh, three more scheduled in the next two weeks. I also already have another solid job offer, but am just interviewing with a few more to see if I like their offers more. LOL ..it’s awesome!!
But I worked as a nurse for several years, doing things that most people could not do without fainting or throwing up ..and then went back to school for more education. I’ve learned specialized skills and had to study my hide off. I’d MUCH rather work as a magazine editor, but, oh well — this pays the bills!
This is an important article but you have to read between the lines. On the surface, it seems to be making excuses for a bad economic environment by telling new graduates that, hey, its not so bad, this is pretty typical.
In truth, it IS bad. If you have huge percentages of grads not working up to the preparation they have paid for and devoted valuable time to achieving, then it is a big loss for the grad and for the economy as a whole. Government has, tragically, played its part in weakening opportunities. No bright, hard-working person should have to worry about finding something to do that supports him or her.
If you encourage studies in fields that don’t generate a paying job, you are failing a student. This happens a lot in universities where kids, who don’t have the best math and communication skills when they enter college, search for a major that they can handle. They are often told by university personnel to find something they like to do—they don’t know what they like to do because they don’t have any adult work experience. So, they choose something that is comfortable or interesting to study. They then take classes in stuff that is not practical and get socialized into the people and field of study. It becomes hard to leave it as it would take a long time to make up for lost studies in more practical majors. The result is a person who wasted years studying something that offers no paying future.
Enslave the graduate with huge college bills...have a tax slave for life...
People getting degrees now are foolish...
best to start working at 16, by 21 do something well that you love, by 30 be a small business owner...without all the college debt...and with working off the radar, able to barter and make a living without being taxed to death...
Good for you. You’ve got your head on straight, it sounds like.
Best wishes on the interviews, and God Bless.
Entitlement mentality instilled in them by their never-had-a-real-job-or-failed-at-it professors.
Philosophy
Gender studies
Theatre
Poli Sci
French Literature
Shall i continue?
Actually, there will be many companies that will pay him more than what he's worth. We call it "minimum wage."
Gender studies AND poetry? Wow--I'm impressed that he took on the extra workload to get two useless degress.
I recently interview a kid 1 year out of college with 6 months experience as a web designer (his degree was in Business Information Systems - we called those computer science lite). After a few tech questions it was obvious he didn’t know anything about actual software design. For grins as I ended the interview I asked his salary expectations. He said around $85,000 without a grin.
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