Posted on 05/08/2009 8:00:46 PM PDT by reaganaut1
The bad news for this spring's college graduates is that they're entering the toughest labor market in at least 25 years.
The worse news: Even those who land jobs will likely suffer lower wages for a decade or more compared to those lucky enough to graduate in better times, studies show.
Andrew Friedson graduated last year from the University of Maryland with a degree in government and politics and a stint as student-body president on his résumé. After working on Barack Obama's presidential campaign for a few months, Mr. Friedson hoped to get a position in the new administration. When that didn't pan out he looked for jobs on Capitol Hill. No luck there, either.
So now, instead of learning about policymaking and legislation, he's earning about $1,250 a month as a high-school tutor and a part-time fundraiser for Hillel, a Jewish campus organization. To save money, he's living with his parents.
If asked a year ago whether he'd be tutoring now, Mr. Friedson says, "I would have laughed in your face."
Trading down to a lower-skilled job isn't just a hit to Mr. Friedson's ego. It could also hurt his bank account for years to come. Economic research shows that the consequences of graduating in a downturn are long-lasting. They include lower earnings, a slower climb up the occupational ladder and a widening gap between the least- and most-successful grads.
In short, luck matters. The damage can linger up to 15 years, says Lisa Kahn, a Yale School of Management economist. She used the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth, a government data base, to track wages of white men who graduated before, during and after the deep 1980s recession.
(Excerpt) Read more at online.wsj.com ...
Not necessarily so. A reasonably huge company that rakes in hundreds of millions can afford to pay that sort of dough to the top banana.
I was a college grad at the time of Carter's fiscal nightmare. Being employed by a large company with defense contracts meant that my hiring wage was 'frozen' for almost 5 years. The only way to advance was to change employers or careers - an option that was quite limited at the time due to the major recession. It took decades to 'catch up' with my peers in terms of salary.
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I feel sorry for my teenage sons, who were too young to vote, but will be saddled with the economic hardship created by the current administration, much as I was in the Carter era.
Maryland isn't a bad school to attend for other reasons. It's a first-rate science and engineering school. My wife is thinking of getting into graduate school for an astronomy degree and I'm thinking of going with her. Why? Because we can. Not “yes, we can”; “because we can.”
What a waste of an "education". This liberal whiner is upset because his plan of living high on the hog via the U.S. Taxpayer isn't panning out the way he thought it would.
I think he isn’t being too picky these days.
Maybe Andy ought to get a job as a "community organizer" and polish up his resume for the next time around?
Are you looking for a job?
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