Posted on 07/03/2024 5:48:09 AM PDT by Red Badger
KEY POINTS
* Although the unemployment rate is just 4%, there is a growing share of young adults not working.
* “NEETS” are opting out of the labor force by choice.
* Others, referred to as “new unemployables,” are struggling to find employment despite their best efforts.
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Although the unemployment rate has spent 30 months at or below below 4% — a near record — not everyone who wants a job has one. And not everyone even wants a job at all.
Some, referred to as “NEETs,” which stands for “not in employment, education, or training,” are opting out of the labor force largely because they are discouraged by their economic standing.
Others, alternatively, are well-qualified but often younger candidates who are struggling to find positions, comprising a contingent of “new unemployables,” according to a recent report by Korn Ferry.
Among 16- to 24-year-olds, the unemployment rate rose to 9% in May, which is “typical,” according to Alí Bustamante, a labor economist and director of the Worker Power and Economic Security program at the Roosevelt Institute, a liberal think tank based in New York City.
Although the youth unemployment rate fell below 7% in 2023, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, such lows were “emblematic of how hot the labor market was at that point,” Bustamante said.
“9% is basically what we should be expecting during relatively good economic times for younger workers,” he added.
‘NEETS’ feel ‘left out and left behind’ Still, some young adults in the U.S. are neither working nor learning new skills.
In 2023, about 11.2% of young adults ages 15 to 24 in the U.S. were considered as NEETs, according to the International Labour Organization.
In other words, roughly one in 10 young people are “being left out and left behind in many ways,” Bustamante said.
Even though “that’s typically the norm,” he said, “we should be expecting these rates to be lower.”
Young men, especially, are increasingly disengaged, according to Julia Pollak, a labor economist at ZipRecruiter.
“The NEET trend is mostly a male phenomenon,” she said.
Pollak explained that’s in part due to declining opportunities in traditionally male occupations, such as construction and manufacturing, while “women’s enrollment in schooling, education outcomes, and employment outcomes have mostly trended upwards.”
‘Talent hoarding’ has led to ‘new unemployables’ According to Korn Ferry’s report, a “perfect storm” has also created a glut of “new unemployables,” or highly trained workers who struggle to find job opportunities.
“Employers are holding on to the talent they have and increasingly focusing on talent mobility,” said David Ellis, senior vice president for global talent acquisition transformation at Korn Ferry.
This “talent hoarding” has led to fewer available job openings even for well-qualified candidates, he said.
At the same time, firms are scaling back on new hires, limiting the opportunities at the entry level, as well.
While the teen employment rate is the highest it has been in over a decade, early 20-somethings are struggling to find jobs, Pollak said. “It’s the 20- to 24-year-olds that saw a massive drop off in the labor force participation during the pandemic, and who have lagged behind ever since.”
Overall, hiring projections for the class of 2024 fell 5.8% from last year, according to a report from the National Association of Colleges and Employers, or NACE.
As more candidates compete for fewer positions, stretches of unemployment are also lengthening. Now, the number of people unemployed for longer than six months is up 21%, Korn Ferry found.
‘Unemployable’ to employable Despite those trends in the job market, “all is not lost,” Ellis said.
“Don’t wait to reach out,” he advised. Get back in touch with former employers or colleagues through LinkedIn or email and set up informational interviews. After that initial approach, ask for any job leads or contacts.
In the meantime, make yourself more visible by writing about noteworthy topics in the industry and updating your resume to include keywords and so-called “title tags,” which highlight important elements at the top.
Finally, don’t limit yourself to roles that include a promotion or a raise, Ellis also advised. Rather, aim for a “career lattice,” which could entail taking lower position to gain skills that will pay dividends later.
The real numbers are how many signed up this week, and how many dropped off.................
IF these kids listened to the BS they were taught in school by the liberal left, in their minds the world is going to end any day now...so the idea of getting a job and planning for a future just isnt in their scope of thinking.
Same here, but the NEA/AFT and the Department of Education have now completed a multi-generational effort to marginalize and discourage straight males and the military under the current administration has driven out or away the same category. DEI is active to continue the marginalization.
my hubs works with a woman who has her 30 ++ son living with her even though he has a great FedGov job. he can afford an apartment but not the maid/chef.
He knows another woman who has her grown ass son living with her but at this point he is playing spouse ( without the sex I hope) they do everything together. I find this weird.
Yuck. No wonder my mid 40’s daughter won’t date anymore. She has a job and owns her house and is not looking to be mommy #2.
Lefties are all dropouts from reality. That is why these self-loathing nitwits always try to disrupt and destroy reality. They are uncivil termites.
Shame there’s not a market demand for professional video game players.
This is the natural result of 60 years of LBJ’s so-called ‘Great Society’.
He was essentially targeting minority families with is welfare system, but inadvertently took in a whole lotta white families as well.
The fatherless society essentially becomes a ungovernable society................
Maybe some were harmed by ‘vaccine’? New jobs given to illegals. Some have laid off, can’t find work and ran out of unemployment - these are counted as ‘not looking’? Might there be other reasons?
American mental illness epidemic
Add to that “Purple-Haired Slack Jawed”...............
Both my boys in their 20s are avid video game players, my youngest just got his degree in accounting and is working full time, my oldest is a project manager for a remediation company, and oversees all their hospital accounts. Neither got into social media or the stupid “challenges” going around.
Both live on their own, oldest is married. My younger son’s income would not cover rent today ( it is outrageous), so he has 2 roommates.
I would say homeschooling made a difference but my sons’ peers are all employed too. My husband has about 85 employees under the age of 30, many of whom are managers and are great workers. He pays well, great benefits and free college.
Idk, but our experience has been different than this article, but I don’t doubt the truth of it.
I think the country has been “fundamentally transformed”.
I think wages have not kept up with the cost of living.
I think there are many dead-end “jobs” but a lot fewer “careers”.
I think young people have been screwed by old people.
I think old people fail to understand the damage that old people have done.
Sorry, I’m old school. I like direct descriptions.
NEETS = LAZY & STUPID LOSERS
The New Unemployables are getting a reality check that their expensive and worthless degrees are now a millstone around their necks.
That is intentional. As long as people are not allowed to become well-off economically speaking, the Democrats/Socialists/Progressives/Communists will always have a ready-made voter base of fertile fields to plough and plant their seeds of hate and jealousy.............
“opting out of the labor force largely because they are discouraged by their economic standing.”
Decades ago I was discouraged by my economic standing, but I knew how to remedy that. So what did I do? Waited tables. Learned typing and became a kick-ass typist. Took entry level jobs at small corporations, then large corporations. Rose within the ranks to high level managerial jobs in large corporations. Retired early. No debt. 5,000-sq.-ft. home on a lake.
It took WORK. It took TIME. It took SAVING. What do these people want, a high economic standing in their 20s? Frickin’ snowflakes.
That was probably the most memorable episode of X-Files ever.
It’s also intentionally been done through pop culture—with young women equally deluded in their own way.
NEETS stands for Not Employable, Educable, or Trainable.
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