Posted on 05/12/2012 6:28:23 AM PDT by Kaslin
Walter Russell Mead writes on the disappearance of jobs for non-Baby Boomers:
An analysis of recent jobs figures at Investor.com reveals a disturbing development: the biggest beneficiaries from the economic recovery are Boomers, while everyone else is getting the shaft.
Since the Obama administration took office, there has been an epochal shift. Young workers have continued to lose jobs and incomes, while older workers have actually gained ground.
In fact, the Obama administration has seen a boom in the prospects of the 55+ crowd; their (I should say ‘our’) employment stands at a 42 year high. Net, there are 3.9 new jobs for people over 55 since the recession began in December 2007, but there are 8.1 million fewer jobs for the young folks since that time.
Jed Graham's IBD article features a chart that shows the employment-to-population ratio that applies for the following age groupings: Age 16-24, Age 25-55 and Age 55 and up:
In the chart, we see that those Age 55 and older would appear to have a near constant share of their population group having jobs.
Meanwhile, we see significant decreases in the employment share of the populations for both the Age 25-54 group and especially for the Age 16-24 group since December 2007, which marks the beginning of the so-called "Great Recession".
We thought that outcome was interesting enough to dig deeper into the data to see how the age distribution of the U.S. workforce has changed over this period of time.
And to make it really interesting, we've decided to go back to November 2006 to do it. Here's why:
The downside to our more detailed approach is that we're not going to be able to use the BLS' seasonally-adjusted data for these older five-year age groupings, because the BLS only reports the non-seasonally adjusted data it collects for them, which means that the data we'll be using won't match these more commonly reported values.
Still, because we'll be comparing the data for the same month (November) five years apart, our analysis should only differ in very minor respects from what might be achieved using seasonally-adjusted data, if it had been available.
We're going to do this in a three-part series of posts, with this post being the first. Our next stop: the change in the age distribution of the American workforce from November 2006 to November 2011!
I suggest you get off your behind and move to a place where there is work.
This issue is too complicated to simply blame one generation or another.
I’m a Gen-Xer. My parents were pre boomers, born in 1934 and 1940. The boomers are better educated since public schools hadn’t been destroyed yet through PC. A HS graduate in 1960 probably has the equivalent of an associates degree today. Boomers have a much better work ethic.
Some boomers are why the public schools are failing now. The 60’s radicals took over education (Bill Ayers). My pre boomer algebra teacher could teach a rock how to do math. Her post retirement replacement, a graduate of a premier “teachers” program couldn’t sell water to a bedouin.
There are many positives and negatives to the Boomers. Painting them all with one brush is absurd.
Generation Y and the millenials to me seem hit or miss. I’ve encountered some of the most intelligent, motivated, hard working kids I’ve ever known among that group. Unfortunately there seems to be a large number of them that suffer from the “failure to launch” disease which IMHO comes directly from the destruction of the schools, total lack of personal accountability, and the PC culture of everyone gets a participation award.
“You do work without any up-front payment and without vetting the person to whom you are giving your labor?”
Client came recommended to me by my agent. Got in contact with them, did all the data entry for them ahead of schedule, sent it off, and they’d been delinquent since.
So, yeah. Call me a sucker for having a work ethic and doing the right thing for older folks willing to take advantage of me and my expertise.
“I suggest you get off your behind and move to a place where there is work.”
Which is why I live in TX now, and am basically starting over from scratch. Totally new place and I don’t know very many people here, but I’m working at it and trying to climg the ladder. :)
Let alone actually having the job and the job security to get married and raise some kiddos, seems to me right now as ‘unrealistic’.
Hey, I could do what the boomers have recommended that I do - go on disability! Like them. Collect a check every month. Maybe I should listen to my elders who have my best interests at hand, eh?
Boomers have not lost jobs or gained jobs they have kept jobs.
The group most affected by the job losses are those in the 25 to 50 age group.
THIS IS THE PRIME GROUP OF WORKERS WHO MOVE A MARKET!!!!
The are the ones buying new and bigger houses, kids shoes and clothes, new vans and payionfg for tuition to private school.
When they are out of work it is a tragedy for society.
Many in this age group are over forty. They have also worked since they where twelve, fifty, sixty and seventy hours a week and they are also the one that have always been the first out the door during layoff season.
“Generation Y and the millenials to me seem hit or miss. I’ve encountered some of the most intelligent, motivated, hard working kids I’ve ever known among that group. Unfortunately there seems to be a large number of them that suffer from the “failure to launch” disease which IMHO comes directly from the destruction of the schools, total lack of personal accountability, and the PC culture of everyone gets a participation award.”
Most of us just want the same things you do, a decent job, enough to raise a family and get married. What we are finding is that the only jobs that will hire us are all temporary, or contract work. Why? The business doesn’t have to provide for expensive things that boomers take for granted, like health care coverage, etc.
By keeping us on contract, they get the complete benefit of our labour, without having to deal with the rest of the nonsense, and the taxes associated with hiring people. It’s really just that simple.
Meanwhile, the boomers who are in their full time positions, with tenure and seniority, all under contract, are only to willing to meet their budget off the temps rather then cut back on their peers. If they can shave off the money at the bottom, then they can keep their benefits.
They can’t, in most cases, be fired, so they do the easy thing, hire temps, work us hard and then let us go when things get slow. Then we generation y folks are labelled ‘slackers’, ‘unreliable’, for not having all the things that you had when we were our age.
It’s a catch 22. I work for myself now, because I got tired of employers telling me I should be on disability. At least now, I can actually do things I enjoy without employers deciding how I should live my life. It would be perfect if my clients just paid for the work already done, and I’d be doing quite well.
Or even, gosh, giving me a job and a chance to show them what I can do. :)
“I know a heckuva lot of them who’ve been forced into raising their grandkids/great-grandkids because the parents are losers, addicts, drunks, or all of the above.”
Who raised them?
So, its just the boomers who are for Romney? If that is your world, you need to get out more. Who is going to listen to someone standing on the sidelines complaining about all the spending going on?
I have a history degree. I work part time as a teacher on contract for a private school. Waiting to get a slot so that I’m no longer parttime and move up to something more substantial.
I love my work, and I’m very good at it, but the opportunity hasn’t arisen just yet. Applied for positions in many places and been turned down. I teach middle school history and have done so for the last two years.
I also do data entry on contract to earn some extra bucks, and have been working recently as a runner for a local business here. They needed someone to drive around and pick up stuff, but didn’t want to go through the rigamarole of actually paying someone to be an employee. They just needed someone they could call a couple times a week to do running around, so that they didn’t have to do that themselves. So I do that right now.
Maybe because the older generation have work ethics,are dependable,honest and really know the job their doing.
“So, its just the boomers who are for Romney? If that is your world, you need to get out more. Who is going to listen to someone standing on the sidelines complaining about all the spending going on?”
Look, I’ll make this as simple as possible.
Clinton 2x, Bush 2x, Obama 1x, and now Obama or Romney. You’ve had 20 years to curtail spending, and now we’re supposed to believe that boomers are going to curtail spending now?
I don’t see it. Maybe if we vote another one in, you’ll do it this time, like you didn’t the last 5 times.
You’ve had your chance, and frankly, have taken America from a position of strength to being far weaker than she was in 1992.
The employment numbers are so horrible, not only have you taken us back to 1992, you’ve actually managed to eat away at the gains that the generation ahead of you brought forth.
We’re back to 1981 now, when the Boomers themselves were 35-20. In another couple months, we’ll likely get back to 1978 or so, and in another year, it could be 1955 at the peak of the boom.
Is it possible for one generation to not only spend everything they produced, but also to spend everything that others built up for them? We shall see.
Actually, I really feel your pain. As I noted before, I shoulder most of the responsibility for how spending got out of control. I’ve been pissed off about it since the 80s when Reagan let the Democratic-controlled Congress spend their asses off just so he could do the things he wanted to do. It is not as though we wanted all of this to happen. We didn’t. But why would you want to make the same mistake we did by thinking that we had no control over our government? It is not the boomer workers you should be scolding, but the politicians.
Glad to hear you came to Texas, though! Please consider getting some contract work in the oilfield industry. They are desperate for good, knowledgeable workers and the pay is great. The oil boom won’t last but a few years, but that may be what can tide you over.
Dude, in 2008, there were no Boomers over the age of 62. That's it.
>>Not to mention grandfathering pensions
That only lasts as long as they can keep floating municipal bonds to keep the ponzi scheme running.
And that wagon is running out of gas fast.
I guess people ought to choose when they are born....
Or maybe the government should have had some form of population control to keep all those babies from 'happening' in such a relatively short time.
Sheesh!
Consider that those who have been doing the job for 30 years, might Know what they are doing.
Consider they grew up under a different work ethic than those who aren't permitted to run the french fry machine until they turn 18.
And consider that for the poor slobs who had the grave misfortune to be born at the tail end of the baby boom, the grass isn't any greener than it is for someone born 10 years later: the higher management positions aren't going to vacate until they are nearly retired, provided they get to--unless someone does stellar work.
Which is the bottom line: If you are good at what you do, work hard at it, and have some leadership qualities, you will rise to the top, provided you have some people skills as well.
Whining is not considered a skill.
Thanks! I know not all boomers are bad, far from it. But I have had the most difficulty dealing with boomer parents. I teach in a Catholic school, and I can’t tell you how many times I heard from them that they believed the Church was wrong about X, and that I was wrong to teach what the Church taught.
Assigning blame doesn’t change the fact that people who thought they would be in a position to retire are now raising second families instead. Which, IMO, ties into the topic of this thread.
Yep, that stopgap won’t save them. If they want to save it they are going to have to do real reform.
Apparently I’m the enemy of the boomers for wanting to fix the system outright so that it doesn’t go insolvant while the boomers are depending on it! I’m just pure evil...
>>I have a degree, worked hard, actually paid the darn thing off.
A few years ago I was on a jury with a physics professor from UC Irvine. During the trial he and I had lunch together and he articulated his utter disgust and dismay at the amount and degree of sophisticated cheating he found going on.
He said the students saw nothing wrong with their actions; that they justified their behavior with rationalizations — “everybody does it”, “it’s what you have to do to survive”.
So you can thank them, and those with their attitude, for the perception that your “degree” is worthless.
>>you won’t even give us a chance.
Give?
Uhuh. There it is.
Your local military recruiter not hiring?
Sorry JC...still no sympathy or pitty for your party from me. You chose your career and well, I chose mine. And I’ve changed mine several times as well. Worked hard, went to college TWICE, changed careers at least 3 times. You want to play games with what people write to you and diminish them for being smart enough to change and grow...go blow your smoke somewhere else! You know or comprehend very little of what successful struggle is all about.
I don’t believe in getting into a rut or being afraid to reinvent myself. If you’ve decided to stay in a career rut for 12 years, you are the only person responsible for that CHOICE. Stop blaming everybody else for the choices you are making.
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