Even Worse for Young Workers

[groovedaddy]

The employment situation in the U.S. is, if anything, worse than most people realize. And huge numbers of young people, ages 16 to 30, are being beaten down in ways that could leave scars for a lifetime.

Much of the attention in this economic downturn has focused on the growing legions of men and women who are officially counted as unemployed. There are now more than 11 million of them.

But a better picture of the economic distress related to employment emerges when the number of jobless Americans is combined with two other categories of workers: the underemployed (those who are working part time, for example, because they can’t find full-time work) and the so-called labor force reserve, workers who have abandoned their job searches but who would work if employment became available.

This total pool of underutilized labor has now risen above 24 million, according to researchers at the Center for Labor Market Studies at Northeastern University in Boston. That total will only grow in the coming months.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/28/opinion/28herbert.html?th&emc=th

[Warpy]

1. Being beaten down lasted a lifetime for most older boomers

thanks to the country electing GOP after GOP until it became clear enough that party would always crash the economy to fatten the rich.

Any rotten economy is going to hit the oldest and youngest the hardest. The youngest will be seen as green and unreliable while the oldest will be seen as unattractive and an insurance liability.

However, this economy is so spectacularly bad that no age group will be spared, not even the golden 25-45 group.

[DBoon]

2. Boomers were the first generation without a pension

Individual IRA/401.k savings accounts started in the 1980's

Many companies phased out their pension plans by the '90s

[Warpy]

3. As soon as they made pensions portable

meaning companies couldn't rob our contributions every time we changed jobs, companies couldn't wait to drop them.

We shouldn't be called boomers. Those of us in the first wave should be called the Robbed Generation.

[YoungAndOutraged]

4. I'm 24 with no job

According to the sociopathic right, it is all my fault. If not for my parents, who have to fight tooth and nail for work too, I'd be homeless and probably dead. Oh, but its all our fault, they say. We need more ambition, they say. I say to them "FUCK YOU AND FUCK YOUR TWIN DEVILS REAGAN AND RAND"