The Lost Generation (The continuing job crisis is damaging the future of our young people)

Business Week ^ | 10/9/2009 | Peter Coy

[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."

[ican'tbelieveit]

Young men have it hard. My son looked for a job for a couple of years (teenager to 20) and couldn’t find anything until Walmart did some summer hiring and picked him up.

[SeekAndFind]

You can even study online to become a Mortician ...

With the economy being in the doldrums and staying that way for years, the death industry will be growing.

Here's a suggested ad line for a Mortuary company : OUR BUSINESS IS DYING, BUT IT'S GROWING !!

[ican'tbelieveit]

I have convinced the son to overcome his fear of math to pursue a computer engineering degree. There aren’t that many math classes after calculus 3, after all!

[ican'tbelieveit]

OH, and good luck on the temp job. Hopefully it will open doors (that is how I got the job I have now.

[HANG THE EXPENSE]

I call them the MAGGOT INFESTED DOPESMOKIN AMERICA HATIN HIPPY CROWD of the sixties.Who did not see this coming?

[FreeSouthernAmerican]

HAHAHA, there is no way I would be able to make it. I barely passed and had a tutor, the teacher was staying after class with me, and was studying it everyday. X+Y did not equal Z. It equals XY. HAHAHA, just a joke. Well, mostly.

[FreeSouthernAmerican]

HAHAHA, I can go for that.

[annelizly]

At least this group can move back in with mom and dad.

Try being out of work when you have a wife and kids, mortgage and only a handfull of productive years left to pay off everything and put away a retirement fund...plus put your kids through school!

[FreeSouthernAmerican]

Thanks. Looking forward to it. We are going to be putting up radio relay towers. Just need to get some long johns. It doesn’t get that cold here in El Paso.

[umgud]

Many years ago I worked for a company that wouldn’t hire anyone without a dgree and they didn’t care what the degree was in.

[spikeytx86]

Yeah well a third of us didn't. Young people always make foolish choices.

A lot of people that voted for McGovern in 72’ were enthusiastic Reagan supporters in 80’ and 84’. The 18-24 vote always votes for the pop culture candidate. Then they graduate college, and enter the real world, and vote Republican.

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.

[blam]

"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 was thinking exactly the same thing. If he had a degree in Chemical Engineering...someone would call.

[HANG THE EXPENSE]

You will do fine in life because you dont believe the world owes you a living.Good for you and good luck my FRiend.

[spikeytx86]

Generation Y aren’t even Parents yet by and large.

As for Gen X and Gen Y being worse, all of the problems we face today are the fault of the Boomers and the “Greatest Generation”.

But guess who get’s stuck with their mess!

[sportutegrl]

Even though I myself have an engineering degree, I do feel that an English major is better suited to teach High School level English, Literature, and writing classes than the current crop of Education majors.

[MrPiper]

Young men have it hard. My son looked for a job for a couple of years (teenager to 20) and couldn’t find anything until Walmart

At 16, I showed up at a construction site and said I would work for free for a week. (summer)

I have never been unemployed since.

[Thunder90]

Don’t go gallovanting off to God only knows where without a plan.

Also, realize that even with a cutting edge education, internships, and even military experience, finding a job is next to impossible unless you carry very specific skill sets and fill certain niches.

[donaldo]

I really feel for those College grads with $100,000 student loan debts and a BA in Transgender Perspectives in a Queer Nation.

[Thunder90]

Another thing people can do is game the system. You could offer to work minimum wage or 1/2 the old starting rate at the job until the economy gets better, or possibly pro-bono. You include this as part of the cover letter. Another possibility is to do on the side consulting work.

[spikeytx86]

I certainly agree that an engineering degree, as far as job prospects goes, is far better then an English Degree.

However, a lot of people seem to think that just because you have an engineering degree somehow you are automatically set for life are way off base.

I know plenty of people with Engineering degrees who are out of work. A lot of employers won’t hire them because they are “over qualified” and are afraid once something better comes along they will leave the job.

It’s hard everywhere folks, instead of blaming those who are out of work why don’t we focus on who is most to blame by and large, the f’kers in Washington who caused this whole mess to begin with!