I think from our personal experiences we all know that the job market stinks. It has probably dominated the discussion at holiday dinner tables for the past 7 years.
Some interesting anecdotal data from the POF household:
* Our 3 kids are in mid to late 20s, all college graduates with good, no-nonsense degrees. All three have found it remarkably easy to get good paying jobs after graduating. One has changed jobs twice, one once, and one went back to school after working for a while.
* Most of their friends have the same experience. Some have real high power jobs already.mcompanies range from big consulting firms to Apple, LinkedIn, and Facebook to small startups.
* Most are working in western states (we are in CA), but some have moved to Austin, Houston, Boston! NYC, Chicago.
* Kids are finding a lot of high tech employment opportunities.
* Cost of living in CA is a killer. Kids that stay here must share a house to cover rent, but that’s always been the case in your 20s. Kids are leaving CA because of obscene housing costs.
* A new graduate relative on the east coast (biomedical engineering) is having a real hard time finding work.
* Colleagues in their 50s and 60s that lose jobs are not doomed, but it often takes up to two years to find a job.
Admittedly, this is a biased sample of young people raised in high-achievement families with excellent school systems. But at least this cohort isn’t having much trouble getting careers launched.