Class of 2013: All Dressed Up and No Place to Work

[xchrom]

http://www.alternet.org/education/college-graduates-and-unemployment



As members of the class of 2013 stepped on stage to receive their diplomas, the unemployment rate in America stood at 7.6 percent — a bit better than the past four years, but that ain't saying much. Before the financial crisis, students graduating in 2007 faced a much rosier jobless rate of only 4.7 percent. The fact of the matter is that the past four years of high unemployment numbers represent the worst economy the country has suffered in 70 years, and young adults are shouldering a hefty part of the burden.

When you look at the specific numbers for Millennials, things look even bleaker. As of April, the jobless rate for workers under age 25 was an alarming 16.2 percent. A study by the think tank Demos found that 18- to 34-year-olds make up 45 percent of those who can’t find work. That's a lot of stifled human potential.

In a paper , The Class of 2013, researchers at the Economic Policy Institute showed that young people are not searching in vain for jobs because they lack the appropriate skills or the right education, as many pundits would have it. Rather, they can’t find work because of the weak demand for goods and services. It's actually very simple: when a company can’t sell its goods and services because customers don’t have enough money to spend, it can’t hire more workers. You can be Super-Skilled Super Student, and if the economy isn't humming, you'll have trouble landing a job.

The EPI study also found that young people aren’t able to “shelter in school” and wait out the bad economy: the Great Recession didn’t make much of an impact on enrollment rates at college and universities. It also found that the wages of college grads between 2000 and 2012, adjusted wages for inflation, fell 8.5 percent.

[MADem]

1. There's an opening at Booz, Allen in Hawaii.... nt

[Skittles]

2. it is an absolute DISGRACE

as much as I worry for my own future, I despair at what is happening to our youth - I know it sounds like a cliche but they are the future!!!

[The2ndWheel]

7. Unless the future doesn't really need them

[WinkyDink]

3. As I've posted heretofore: Check MY Class of 1971, TIME's cover story:

BUT DON'T FORGET HOW EASY WE BABY BOOMERS HAD IT. HOW WE STOLE THE JOBS FROM THIS CURRENT GENERATION.[/ B]

[HughBeaumont]

4. Well, hey, this is what happens when you don't pay current workers enough to save or retire.

For 33 straight YEARS.

You have an insurmountable BRICK WALL.

You have a GLUT of workers who cannot retire, positions being eliminated without any new ones being created in their place and no new whiz-bang "killer apps" or "Next Big Thing"s to replace manufacturing and some white collar work.

We make college unaffordable and unattainable.

If life doesn't get fairer really goddamned soon, none of us are going to have much of one.

Well, unless you're a multi-millionaire. Then the world is your oyster. Hey, with a good 47% of the peasantry willing to step up and defend your grand scam, by golly, WHY FIX WHAT AIN'T BROKEN??

[xchrom]

5. +1

[leftyladyfrommo]

6. It's such a terrible waste of important assets.

All those young people with all that training and it's just going to waste.

It was the same when I graduated in 1969. There weren't any jobs and I think it really affected most of us for a long time. We didn't have student loans to deal with but we had to take just whatever jobs we could find. And they were low paying. And a lot of people got stuck right from the get go.