It’s A Great Time To Be A New College Graduate: High Unemployment, Crappy Service Jobs, etc.)

The Economic Collapse ^ | 01/25/2011 | Mochael Snyder

[SeekAndFind]

Today, America's best and brightest are graduating from college full of hopes and dreams, but cold, hard economic reality is rapidly crushing many of them. Record numbers of college graduates cannot find jobs. Hordes of others have been forced to take very low paying service jobs. At the same time, student loan debt loads have become more crushing than ever. The truth is that it is a really, really bad time to be a fresh college graduate. After spending tens of thousands of dollars and investing four (or more) years of their lives in an education, millions of recent college graduates find themselves waiting tables, tending bar, delivering pizzas and working next to (or subordinate to) people who never even went to college. At one time, a college degree was an automatic ticket to the middle class, but now for many Americans all a college degree means is crushing loan payments, sleepless nights and mind-numbing frustration.

We were always told that a college degree was supposed to prepare us for life in the real world. But today, the vast majority of college graduates end up moving back in with their parents.

In fact, a recent survey of last year's college graduates found that 80 percent moved right back home with their parents after graduation. That was up substantially from 63 percent in 2006.

So why are 80 percent of our college graduates moving back in with their parents?

Well, because they can't get jobs.

Two million recent college graduates are unemployed, and millions of others are working in fast food joints, at big box stores and in other very low paying service positions.

The stories that some recent college grads tell are so bizarre that they border on the unbelievable.

The Huffington Post recently featured the story of Kyle Daley - a highly qualified UCLA graduate who has been unemployed for 19 months....

I spent my time at UCLA preparing for the outside world. I had internships in congressional offices, political action committees, non-profits and even as a personal intern to a successful venture capitalist. These weren't the run-of-the-mill office internships; I worked in marketing, press relations, research and analysis. Additionally, the mayor and city council of my hometown appointed me to serve on two citywide governing bodies, the planning commission and the open government commission. I used to think that given my experience, finding work after graduation would be easy.

At this point, however, looking for a job is my job. I recently counted the number of job applications I have sent out over the past year -- it amounts to several hundred. I have tried to find part-time work at local stores or restaurants, only to be turned away. Apparently, having a college degree implies that I might bail out quickly when a better opportunity comes along.

The sad thing is that so many of these recent college graduates can't even get hired for retail jobs. A reader of my column on The American Dream blog named Kate is a recent college graduate who is experiencing the kind of extreme frustration that so many new graduates are going through right now....

I just graduated college in May… Moved to a new state and am now living with my boyfriend who should not and cannot continue to have to pay everything because i just plain can’t get a job.

I’m over qualified for retail survivor jobs… so I lie on my application. But then retail stores just plain don’t hire full time. So even if I could get a job as a cashier someplace… I’d only work enough hours to maybe pay for my car payment/ car insurance/ gas…. and my half of rent/electric and such is out of the question… not to mention charged to the limit credit cards from being unemployed and student loans that will hit in just a matter of months.

Any other jobs either don’t exist or they just ALL want 5 years professional experience…. which is impossible for someone who just graduated and has been working part time retail jobs since high school.

But it just isn't college graduates that are suffering. The truth is that this economic downturn has been hurting everyone....

*According to a recent Pew Research poll, approximately 37% of all Americans between the ages of 18 and 29 have either been unemployed or underemployed at some point during the recession.

*A different Pew Research survey found that 55 percent of American workers have experienced either unemployment, a pay decrease, a reduction in hours or an involuntary move to part-time work since the recession began.

*According to another survey, 28% of all U.S. households have at least one member that is currently looking for a full-time job.

For many U.S. households, the person looking for a job is a recent college graduate.

As you read this, hordes of highly qualified college grads are out applying for jobs as waitresses, pizza delivery men, grocery checkout clerks and hamburger flippers.

Even those who are able to get decent jobs are finding themselves disappointed. Starting salaries for college graduates across the United States are down in 2010.

But why shouldn't starting salaries be down? It is the employers that hold all the leverage - not the new graduates.

Meanwhile, many of these college graduates are graduating with crushing student debt loads. Today, many students borrow 10, 20 or even 30 thousands dollars per year while they are in school.

Federal statistics reveal that only 36 percent of the full-time students who began college in 2001 received a bachelor's degree within four years.

That is a very sad statistic.

The truth is that college courses have become so "dumbed down" in 2010 that even the family dog should be able to graduate from most U.S. colleges in four years.

Even after 6 years, that same group's graduation rate was still only 57 percent.

Very sad.

But getting back to the point, every single one of those years most college students are racking up huge amounts of debt.

Today, approximately two-thirds of all U.S. college students graduate with student loans.

Student loan balances of over $50,000 are becoming quite common among our college grads. In fact, some students end up with over $100,000 in student loan debt by the time they are done.

Unfortunately, student loan debt is some of the cruelest debt out there.

Federal bankruptcy law makes it nearly impossible to discharge student loan debts, and many recent grads end up with loan payments that absolutely devastate them financially at a time when they are struggling to get on their feet and make something of themselves.

[centurion316]

The student loan scam has enabled colleges and universities to raise their tuition at rates about 3 times the rate of inflation and they have done that consistently for the past 20 years. With all that “free” student loan money, no one forced fiscal discipline on these schools. The tenured faculty enjoyed unwarranted raises, and there was plenty left over to hire graduate students and adjunct faculty to do the onerous tasks of actually teaching the courses. Life was good for everyone but the student. But since the students could expect to cash in after graduation, no one cared.

Well, its time to pay the piper. The entitled class needs to be rocked back on their heels and put in their place. If they can’t offer a product that students and parents are willing to pay for, then they need to go away, the faster the better.

[tflabo]

The average unemployment rate for the Bush years was about 5.2%. The demoRats howled about tax cuts for the rich and the ‘poor economy’ back then. Well DUH...Now unemployment rate is at least doubled (if not more) and Obama reluctantly agrees to keep the Bush tax cuts intact. It’s so chic to be a liberal when the economy is run by real adults because libs are just spoiled, brat wayward children.

[AD from SpringBay]

Obama babies are hitting the street looking for jobs. A dose of reality might be good for them.

The Obama babies are on track to get a good dose of Mamma Gub'mint teat - they are continuing to learn how to be good dependents of the state.

[dragnet2]

The young people in the U.S. are screwed...

If they do happen to get a job, they'll enter a greedy meat grinder, where they'll work without raises, and be offered phony incentives, and stupid prizes in lieu of deserved raises...They'll be threatened daily, if they don't work harder for less, they'll be fired.

Good luck in today's workplace!

[The Great RJ]

Having a law degree could be even worse. When my son took the bar exam in Minnesota he was one of nearly 700 prospective lawyers. He was lucky to land a clerk job with an Appeals Court and then got hired by a large firm in Minneapolis. Many of his law school classmates are still struggling to find jobs. His current position is probably a growing law specialty thanks to Obama...corporate bankruptcy.

[MasterGunner01]

Awwwww. Those poor, poor babies! You went into debt $100,000+ for degrees in Art Appreciation, Underwater Basket Weaving, and Black/Hispanic/Women's Studies and find out you have no marketable skills? Duuuh. I guess you'll have to spend more money on grad school so you can stay in academia and become a tenured drone there.

We have a glut of people who are poorly educated, highly indoctrinated, and totally useless when it comes to working in the real world. They expected they'd graduate to a $200,000 year job, with perks, and a McMansion by just showing up and flashing a worthless piece of paper with an embossed seal from an Ivy League school? Good luck with that.

Most of these kids should have gone to a trade or vocational school. However, getting your hands dirty doing real work is so lower class. We all know that “thinking” work is the path to success. Right.

I know plumbers who make more than a degreed university professor with a PhD. When it comes to real college courses, guess which ones are scorned like the plague by most kids? The hard sciences and various engineering courses where you have to work your butt off and demonstrate competency. Most of our spoiled kids think you make a $1 million by “being there for you”.

[Nuc 1.1]

...(or subordinate to) people who never even went to college.

What utter snobbery. What an entitlement mentality. For decades the smarmy little college students have voted for the marxist party and openly supported the destruction of America. And now your chickens are coming home to roost. A college student should be able to think and reason. But not most of you folks. What little fools you really are.

[dragnet2]

Most of these kids should have gone to a trade or vocational school.

Illegal aliens are taking all the labor intensive trade jobs, HVAC, all aspects of construction, truck drivers, plumbing, forklift operators, warehousing, etc etc etc....

I've seen it over and over and over.

They young people in today's America, are simply screwed..

[tflabo]

You raise a valid point Gunner. Lot’s of kids today have a pee-poor work ethic compared to kids of yesteryear. Too much valuable time spent on computers, gadget games etc...
plus brainwashed by liberal media hacks and lack of great role models. Bottom line is so many of today’s kids are deficient in real life work skills that would help propel them to future success. It’s a crime too that they will be saddled by greedy debt of the corruptocrats in DC past and present.

[Hoosier Catholic Momma]

My husband spent 9+ years with the Navy driving boats for the SEAL teams (he was rated as an Electronics Tech). When he got out, he walked in a job that he really had no experience in, but with his credentials with the military and his wide range of experience, he was snapped up quickly by major oil company working in their films division. From there, he started taking engineering classes while working full-time and raising a family (average 3.8 GPA).

Fast forward to today, where he unfortunately hasn’t finished his B.S. in engineering, but only his Associate’s. However, his resume is extremely impressive in what he has accomplished and he just recently landed another job as a manufacturing engineer in Ohio. While he’s not making 6 figures yet, he’s making 3+ times what he earned in the Navy. (and yes, I am going to make him finish that degree once I get moved to OH with him, LOL).

A piece of paper from an overpriced college didn’t get him where he is today...his work ethic, his capacity to learn quickly, and his sponge of a brain did. And this from the guy who barely graduated high school because he got bored and goofed off. ;)

[wally_bert]

Sounds like EPC and only if you are a valued employee! If you are a temp, too bad.

[DreamingWest]

Not all of us voted for him, and there are a lot of jobs in which a college degree is required.
It wasn’t my generation that voted to send manufacturing jobs overseas in droves. Boxer and the like have been in office since I was in diapers.
The idea that this is somehow “punishment” for a vote some people made 2 years ago is a simple cop-out for the fact that while we were growing up, the generations prior were voting in a way and manner which lead to all this.

[BobL]

So, to fix things:

First - admit, once and for all, that a college degree (with some exceptions) is what a high school diploma was a 30 years ago - an indication that one can read and do arithmetic.

Second - Tell those kids, congratulations, we know you can read and do arithmetic. We can give you a low-skill job (like retail sales, office filing, etc.) OR you can go back to school and learn a skill (such as welding, electrical work, plumbing, auto repair). At the same time, audit every employer and KICK OUT THE ILLEGALS, who, whether we like it or not, are often much better skilled than Americans...at least in those types of trades.

Third - Give the kids in high school that actually did learn something a chance to show it by taking some real-world tests. If they do well on those tests, treat it as a CED - College Equivalency Degree - and require employers who demand a college degree to accept it as an equivalent, for those low-skilled jobs.

Forth - Tell today’s high school students that they have to choose one of the following options:
a) Go to college for a professional degree (medicine, engineering, or hard science) and be eligible for loans and grants;
b) Go to college for a soft degree (psych, linguistics, history, poly sci) and come up with the money yourself;
c) Go to trade school / community college for useful field (the trades, nursing, pre-engineering), and be eligible for aid;
d) Go to trade school / community college for useless field and pay your own way;
e) Don’t go to college, but get your CED, so employers know that you’re not a total air head;
f) Don’t go to college and don’t get a CED...and roll the dice.

[ConservativeStatement]

Yeah but like OMG, like whatever, like we are like going to make like history and like change things. Like, OMG. Whatever.

[AEMILIUS PAULUS]

America is as South America was in my youth. The South American middle class had no opportunity, due to lack of a productive economy, so everyone was an attorney, journalist or governmental hack. The American leadership class, with a generous assist from a degenerate populace, have so fouled up our economy that we now have an economy where the middle class will produce attorneys, journalists and governmental hacks. America ‘s economy will probably never recover.

[pallis]

“Mamma Gub’mint teat...”

I think that teat is about to run dry.

[who knows what evil?]

Most of these kids should have gone to a trade or vocational school.

Bump that! Those skills will be in high demand in the coming years...

[5Madman2]

Well Said :)

[TASMANIANRED]

Liberal arts degree isn’t the answer.

[MasterGunner01]

As a former Brown Water Navy “River Rat” thank your husband for his service. Back in 1970, I was involved in running SEALs/UDTs about the Ca Mau Peninsula as part of Mobile Support Team TWO out of Nam Can, RVN. Great people and one scary place, I can assure you.

Like your husband, I got my jobs not so much from a degree, but from a kick-butt work ethic and dedication to supporting my company's products (I was 30 years’ in the aerospace product support field).

Good luck to you and your husband in his future career move. Hard work and dedication does payoff.