"Lost Decade for Under-35 Workers"

[steelmoon]

Below are three related (they cross-reference) media pieces regarding the difficulties younger adults are having finding work that pays adequately to support themselves independently, let alone raise families or enjoy the same standard of living in which they were raised.

I have observed this myself among young men and women recently out of school trying to find work and start careers.  Several members on this board have also posted of similar experiences.  Another example is the link Matt posted the other day regarding newly minted lawyers having trouble finding work in the legal field - a part, in my view, of this larger trend.  Of course this is mostly anecdotal, and I suppose I'll hear contrary views.  Also, the AFL-CIO (which conducted a survey which two of the articles discuss) is a political entity and as such of course has its own agenda.  Also, I don't see how passage of the Employee Free Choice Act will address the issue of jobs scarcity, which is a structural economic problem and may not be solveable in light of the debt-fueled overexpansion that seems to be unwinding.

That said, driving across state to a court hearing this morning, I happened to have a conversation with my boss on this very same topic.  Other parents of young adults have expressed similar concerns to me.  Many boomers are aware of this problem and deeply concerned about it, and I'm not posting this to bash boomers or start an inter-generational flame war.  Generational tags are usually so sweeping as to be virtually meaningless.

But I think the issue is an extremely important one, and that this will become more apparent if we indeed experience another "jobless recovery."  (How such a thing could be termed a "recovery" at all is beyond me.)  I have posted before that a large, relatively educated, relatively young, unemployed or under-employed demographic is a very dangerous thing to TPTB.  This is a politically and socially combustible development, the consequences of which are difficult to foresee, but which could be severe.

http://blog.aflcio.org/2009/09/01/young-workers-a-lost-decade/

http://www.alternet.org/workplace/142386/young_workers_in_free_fall:_1_3_under_35_live_with_parents/?comments=view&cID=1311221&pID=1310800#c1311221

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/11/opinion/11herbert.html?_r=1&hpw

[Timactionfigures]

What's minimum wage now?...like $7.25/hr or something? 

How can people be expected to live and prosper on so little in exchange for their very being? A person's TIME and ENERGY are worth so much more than that. And yet it goes on...

Actually, NO amount of money is worth sacrificing your LIFE for. Why do we do it?

Oh I forgot...everyone's addicted to unsustainable, meaningless technology.

[JurisDoctorOfDoom]

Key statistics and prescient quote from the Times article, particularly in regards to young men (emphasis mine):

. . . the plight of young workers, especially young men, is particularly frightening. The percentage of young American men who are actually working is the lowest it has been in the 61 years of record-keeping, according to the Center for Labor Market Studies at Northeastern University in Boston.

Only 65 of every 100 men aged 20 through 24 years old were working on any given day in the first six months of this year. In the age group 25 through 34 years old, traditionally a prime age range for getting married and starting a family, just 81 of 100 men were employed.

For male teenagers, the numbers were disastrous: only 28 of every 100 males were employed in the 16- through 19-year-old age group. For minority teenagers, forget about it. The numbers are beyond scary; they’re catastrophic.

This should be the biggest story in the United States. When joblessness reaches these kinds of extremes, it doesn’t just damage individual families; it corrodes entire communities, fosters a sense of hopelessness and leads to disorder.

[HotRocks]

Hhmmm... and just how grim are the economic woes of minorities and when did they start? 

But no worries, I'm sure things will all peacefully sort themselves out...

[CMH]

At my first "real" job in 1995 I was making just over $9 an hour.  Not bad for only a HS diploma and being 19.  For the same job today I would need a degree and would start at $11 an hour.

Lost decade it is.

Glad I don't work for money any more.

[byelka]

I read the article in the NYT and was encouraged by the comments. NYT is pretty mainstream, and pretty liberal. But nearly all of the comments were from people saying "We know this "recovery" is BS; we're not buying this crap, WTH is Obama doing bailing out bankers?" I've only read the first two pages and there's very little hysteria or name-calling. No people saying "wingnuts" or "commies." Everybody seems to recognize that we are deep doo-doo, and many of the comments would fit in here (talking about collapse, revolution, etc.). Maybe there's some hope. Yeah, we're going off a cliff, but maybe not blindly. Thanks for sharing this article.

[Timactionfigures]

At my first "real" job in 1995 I was making just over $9 an hour.  Not bad for only a HS diploma and being 19.  For the same job today I would need a degree and would start at $11 an hour.

Lost decade it is.

Glad I don't work for money any more.

I suppose it just hands itself over then? 

Curious...what DO you do then?

[NYALB]

Actually, NO amount of money is worth sacrificing your LIFE for. Why do we do it?

Because we like to eat and have a place to sleep

[bri]

Actually, NO amount of money is worth sacrificing your LIFE for. Why do we do it?

Because we like to eat and have a place to sleep

post of the day right here. simple. yet so brutally honest and to the point.

[Aleph-Null]

What's minimum wage now?...like $7.25/hr or something? 

How can people be expected to live and prosper on so little in exchange for their very being? A person's TIME and ENERGY are worth so much more than that. And yet it goes on...

Actually, NO amount of money is worth sacrificing your LIFE for. Why do we do it?

Oh I forgot...everyone's addicted to unsustainable, meaningless technology.

Many people working for minimum wage don't even get full-time hours.  Many of them make like $150 per week before taxes. 

[MidWestHerbalist]

it corrodes entire communities, fosters a sense of hopelessness and leads to disorder......


get ready.... On order is Disorder....

[bust.a.head]

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[Timactionfigures]

Actually, NO amount of money is worth sacrificing your LIFE for. Why do we do it?

Because we like to eat and have a place to sleep

post of the day right here. simple. yet so brutally honest and to the point.

Ah...for a moment I thought it was because everyone likes to have a metal coffin on wheels to teleport in, a ball-and-chain they can punch letters into and speak to communicate meaningless dribble across thousands of miles, and a million other "things" that make life completely worth living. Thanks for straightening that out. 

[bust.a.head]

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I blah do it so blabba bla't bla to blabba bla of my blabba.

[mtlouie]

Actually, NO amount of money is worth sacrificing your LIFE for. Why do we do it?

Because we like to eat and have a place to sleep

post of the day right here. simple. yet so brutally honest and to the point.

Ah...for a moment I thought it was because everyone likes to have a metal coffin on wheels to teleport in, a ball-and-chain they can punch letters into and speak to communicate meaningless dribble across thousands of miles, and a million other "things" that make life completely worth living. Thanks for straightening that out. 

There's a lot of people who DON'T do it, but societally they are pariahs.  And most of humanity would rather have the ball-and-chain than figure out a way to live as simply as possible, the "rules" be damned.

Some are called artists.
Some are called homeless.
Some have figured out how to do five or six different things that they enjoy doing, and make enough to live simply.