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The Lost Generation (The continuing job crisis is damaging the future of our young people)
Business Week ^ | 10/9/2009 | Peter Coy

Posted on 10/10/2009 4:12:44 PM PDT by SeekAndFind

Bright, eager—and unwanted. While unemployment is ravaging just about every part of the global workforce, the most enduring harm is being done to young people who can't grab onto the first rung of the career ladder.

Affected are a range of young people, from high school dropouts, to college grads, newly minted lawyers and MBAs across the developed world from Britain to Japan. One indication: In the U.S., the unemployment rate for 16- to 24-year-olds climbed to more than 18%, from 13% a year ago.

For people just starting their careers, the damage may be deep, 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.

Equally important, employers are likely to suffer from the scarring of a generation. The freshness and vitality young people bring to the workplace is missing. Tomorrow's would-be star employees are on sidelines, deprived of experience and losing motivation. In Japan, which has been down this road since the early 1990s, workers who started their careers a decade or more ago and are now in their 30s account for 6 in 10 reported cases of depression, stress, work-related mental disabilities, according to Japan Productivity Center for Socio-Economic Development.

When today's unemployed finally do get jobs in the recovery, many may be dissatisfied to be slotted below people who worked all along—especially if the newcomers spent their downtime getting more education, says Richard Thompson, vice-president for talent development at Adecco Group North America, which employs more than 300,000 people in temporary positions. Says Thompson: "You're going to have multiple generations fighting for the jobs that are going to come back in the recovery."

(Excerpt) Read more at businessweek.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Culture/Society; Editorial; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: bhoeconomy; generationy; globaleconomy; jobless; jobs; obamasfault; unemployment; youth
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To: buccaneer81

So is hiring illegal aliens. You don’t notice construction companies flinching at hiring illegals, do you?

Show up for work, ready for work and ready to get dirty. Follow orders, don’t whine and wha-la, you could very well have a job.


101 posted on 10/10/2009 6:23:59 PM PDT by NVDave
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To: NVDave
The one hitch? He’s going to get dirty and tired driving a mining haul truck. Poor woobie.

That sounds fun.

...but only if I get to put some "stirring" classical music on and put the windows down.

102 posted on 10/10/2009 6:37:07 PM PDT by rabscuttle385 (Kick corrupt Democrats *AND* Republicans out of office in 2010!)
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To: Koblenz
I did pretty well in accounting classes ages ago and am not the high end math whiz. Never thought of it like that. I am pretty darn good with Excel or Calc.
103 posted on 10/10/2009 6:43:26 PM PDT by wally_bert (It's sheer elegance in its simplicity! - The Middleman)
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To: NVDave
If the budget can stand it, I am looking at getting some training in something else early next year. I haven't touched a welding rig since HS Auto Mech. At one time I was pretty decent with a cutting torch. It has been a decade and change.
104 posted on 10/10/2009 6:45:57 PM PDT by wally_bert (It's sheer elegance in its simplicity! - The Middleman)
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To: buccaneer81
At 16, I showed up at a construction site and said I would work for free for a week.

"Sadly, that's illegal in our brave new world."

Did I say I did not get paid? I was hired BECAUSE I was willing to show I would work for free to prove I was worth it.

105 posted on 10/10/2009 6:49:06 PM PDT by MrPiper
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To: rabscuttle385

Most of these trucks have XM radios in them. Full subscription package. You can listen to whatever you want.

You won’t want to put the windows down. The dust on mining sites is ferocious.

Oh, and they have full air-ride suspension seats, too - and the usual air conditioning/heating/etc.


106 posted on 10/10/2009 6:49:23 PM PDT by NVDave
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To: MrPiper

PS,,,, broken concrete is very heavy!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


107 posted on 10/10/2009 6:50:48 PM PDT by MrPiper
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To: rbg81

“I’ll bet that Dan had a really good time in college. Maybe he would have a harder time, but a good paying job if he had majored in, say, Engineering instead of English?”

Agree - and removing the ring from his lip might help a bit too.


108 posted on 10/10/2009 6:55:31 PM PDT by BobL
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To: spikeytx86
... plenty of people with Engineering degrees who are out of work.

Especially if they are American citizens. It's been bad and getting worse for citizen types since January of 2000.

Any H1B with a six-week crash course can say, "Ya, we do dot", and the Americans can take a hike.

109 posted on 10/10/2009 6:59:52 PM PDT by meadsjn
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To: NVDave
Most of these trucks have XM radios in them. Full subscription package. You can listen to whatever you want.

Dang it. I wish I had known about this before going to college. But then again, hindsight is everything, and I really was an immature brat when I started college.

110 posted on 10/10/2009 7:11:20 PM PDT by rabscuttle385 (Kick corrupt Democrats *AND* Republicans out of office in 2010!)
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To: FreeSouthernAmerican

Actually, that’s Gen X... not Gen Y.

Gen Y basically came to age during the Clinton administration.


111 posted on 10/10/2009 7:14:18 PM PDT by gogogodzilla (Live free or die!)
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To: MrPiper
Did I say I did not get paid? I was hired BECAUSE I was willing to show I would work for free to prove I was worth it.

I must be missing something here, MrPiper.

In high school back in the early 70's, I forked out calf pens for $1.10 an hour. Disgusting work, especially in the summer when the bedding was rife with untold thousands of maggots.

But I dealt with it and bought a 4 year old '69 Z/28 with my earnings. I still have the car.

These guy's whining about no work falls on deaf ears in these parts. You have to start at the bottom and work your way up.

It was always thus.

112 posted on 10/10/2009 7:15:23 PM PDT by SnuffaBolshevik
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To: ican'tbelieveit
For all you job seekers out there here is some of my experience. I could not afford college ( I tried for a year), so I enlisted in the Navy for the GI Bill (which was not nearly as good then as now). While in the Navy, I had 60 weeks of electronic training on radars and fire control systems. I use this training every day ever now.

After my tour of duty in the Navy, I returned to college and graduated with a degree in Physics. While in college I joined the active reserves because I needed money for a car and a little entertainment. No work was available locally (in western Pennsylvania) so I went to graduate school majoring in Meteorology/Oceanography (I liked the ocean). Now here is the important point. I had to go where the jobs were, so I went to Texas. When I wanted to change jobs I moved to Maryland (with my wife and child). My move to Texas left both our families 1500 miles or so away. The move to MD was a little closer, but not significantly so. During my entire working career, I moved to where I was offered a job. Job offers came because I became known as a good, knowledgeable professional.

So figure out where the jobs are, and pack your bag. I would move offshore in a flash under the right conditions. Also pick up a useful foreign language or two. Good Luck.

113 posted on 10/10/2009 7:15:32 PM PDT by Citizen Tom Paine
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To: freedumb2003

I doubt you could catagorize Obama to any ‘generation’... as he was not raised in America.

Boomer, X, Y, whatever... are all American ‘generations’.


114 posted on 10/10/2009 7:16:24 PM PDT by gogogodzilla (Live free or die!)
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To: rabscuttle385

Well, how long ago was that? XM hasn’t been around but for the last, what, 9 to 10 years?

It certainly wasn’t around when I got out of engineering school.


115 posted on 10/10/2009 7:17:39 PM PDT by NVDave
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To: spikeytx86
BTW, if the 35-54 crowd voted for McCain in the same numbers they voted for Bush in 04’ Obama would probably not be President today regardless of the youth vote.

If McCain was a conservative, we wouldn't have Obama now.

Why vote for a Democrap(R) when you can get a Democrap(D)?

116 posted on 10/10/2009 7:19:28 PM PDT by gogogodzilla (Live free or die!)
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To: SeekAndFind
Lost generation... Pretty big crisis."

Excellent report. Free Republic rocks and always has good leads.
117 posted on 10/10/2009 7:22:23 PM PDT by Falconspeed ("Keep your fears to yourself, but share your courage with others." Robert Louis Stevenson)
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To: gogogodzilla; FreeSouthernAmerican

Whoops, had one too many to drink.

Actually, after looking at the years again... you’re right!


118 posted on 10/10/2009 7:23:00 PM PDT by gogogodzilla (Live free or die!)
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To: rbg81

“I’ll bet that Dan had a really good time in college. Maybe he would have a harder time, but a good paying job if he had majored in, say, Engineering instead of English?”

I’ve pointed this out before and I’ll do it again. I have no information on Dan but why assume that he has the abilities to master the advanced mathematical courses required in engineering studies?

Who knows what Dan had in mind. Maybe he wanted to go on and get an advanced degree to be an English professor but ran out of money. I seem to recall that many stockbrokers have degrees in the liberal arts; could be this is what he had in mind.

The point is that contrary to what some Freepers believe, not every study can master all the curricula in a university.


119 posted on 10/10/2009 7:46:26 PM PDT by OldPossum
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To: SnuffaBolshevik
But I dealt with it and bought a 4 year old '69 Z/28 with my earnings.

Interesting...........I was 40 before I had my first new vehicle, a 1995 F150 Ford Pickup, 300 CI six cly. (cast iron engine),,,,, I still have it and it runs great because I have taken care of it. I guess it come with ...uh... WORK?

120 posted on 10/10/2009 7:48:07 PM PDT by MrPiper
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