Gen Y: No jobs, lots of loans, grim future

[n2doc]

by Megan L. Thomas
msnbc.com contributor
updated 7/28/2010 8:36:50 AM ET


They are perhaps the best-educated generation ever, but they can’t find jobs. Many face staggering college loans and have moved back in with their parents. Even worse, their difficulty in getting careers launched could set them back financially for years.

The Millennials, broadly defined as those born in the 1980s and '90s, are the first generation of American workers since World War II who have cloudier prospects than the generations that preceded them.

Certainly the recession has hurt young workers badly. While the overall unemployment rate was 9.5 percent in June, it was 15.3 percent for those aged 20 to 24, compared with 7.8 percent for ages 35-44, 7.5 percent for ages 45-54 and 6.9 percent for those 55 and older.

Among 18-to 29-year-olds, unemployment is the highest it’s been in more than three decades, according to a recent report from Pew Research Center. The report also found that Millennials, also known as Generation Y, are less likely to be employed than Gen Xers or baby boomers were at the same age.

Millennials are generally well-educated, but they have have been cast as everything from tech savants who will work cheap to entitled narcissists. The recession has pitted these younger workers against baby boomers trying to save for retirement and Gen Xers with homes and families.

more
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/38364681/ns/business-economy_at_a_crossroads

[sakabatou]

1. Clearly, everyone is fucked but the uber rich.

[jtown1123]

2. As a millennial

these articles depress me beyond belief. I fortunately graduated college in May of 2008 right before the shit hit the fan. I was able to land a low paying communications job, which gave me tons of experience and helped me land my current position. My fiance and many of my friends did internships, got good grades and are struggling to find professional jobs where they can start to pay back the atronomical school loans and establish some sort of independent life for themselves. People can get scholarships, go to state schools, and are still strapped with thousands of dollars in debt.

I think oftentimes Millennials get painted as entitled, lazy, selfish (but whose to say these types of people don't exist in every up and coming generation?)Is it so selfish to want a decent wage? Selfish to hope to ever achieve the modest level of success our parents did (before their wealth was decimated by the recession?)

It would be great if the government could put together some sort of mass public service jobs program for all the college grads desperate for work. Until that happens, we're going to have a lot of highly educated and capable graduates working service sector jobs that will not cover the costs of their educations. I guess at the end of the day, there are too many people, to few job openings, and experienced workers willing to take entry level jobs. I hope not just for the millennials but for all generations, the government will pull together a New Deal jobs program.

[Starry Messenger]

3. Curious.

Then why does our education policy say that the key to ending poverty is education? No doubt, it helps, but not much if there aren't any jobs...and clearly the numbers are worse the younger you are...things don't match up here.

[uncommon]

5. I think the basic key to ending poverty on a widespread level is education --

meaning that a well-armed (intellectually) populace is better able to stick up for itself.

But right now, in terms of paying the bills, education is killing my generation. We are over-educated, burdened with crushing student loan debt, and many of us were not prepared for basic tasks of everyday life because we focused so much on school.

[jtown1123]

8. Very true

It seems nowadays you need a college degree, it doesn't really add anything to your resume, and doesn't make you any more desirable to employers who have their pick of the litter. Supposedly education is the key but it ends up chaining millions of college grads in a cycle of debt they may never climb out of. A conundrum indeed.

[Starry Messenger]

9. I worry about you folks.

I'm forty and things were a little grim when I got out of college (though I majored in Fine Art, always a thin field for jobs). I teach high school now and the palpable sense of stress about the future from even the young teens is intense. I don't know what to tell them. :(

[uncommon]

10. I tell teenagers that they shouldn't rush into college unless they are certain of their

career path and it is a path that is unattainable without a college degree.

And then, if they really need to go, I tell them to start at a community college and start slow to make sure before they rack up thousands in debt.

[jtown1123]

12. Good advice

while you're at it, discourage law school unless the person is going to a top 10 school.

[uncommon]

13. I disagree with that. I work in a law firm, and my (attorney) boss went

to a nothing-ranked law school and makes a good living and employs 12 people who also make good livings.

If you want to become an associate at a top-ranked firm right out of law school, then your advice is sound. If you want to work your way up and work at small firms or go into private practice, then learn to be a good lawyer.

[jtown1123]

15. Well, I wouldn't want to discourage everyone

from not going to law school but I know plenty of recent law grads who can't even work for a small firm because places are so squeezed right now they are only hiring lawyers with a year or two of experience. Job openings in the gov't, legal aid, and non-profit sector are difficult to come by with the glut of deferred associates. There are way too many lawyers and the job market is incredibly tight. This year especially. Didn't mean to go off on such a tangent :)

[jtown1123]

11. Network!

God, I hate to say it, but if you want to be successful nowadays, you have to build a network and build it young. I read an article in the NYT last year where a mother asked her 9-year-old why she seemed so depressed all of a sudden and the girl said she was concerned about her future and asked her mom if she would ever find a job...a 9-year-old! I guess if you have to get a college degree and you have the aptitude for math/science/technical subjects, do that. Nothing is a guarantee. I hear the whole "nurses are in demand" is a fallacy too.

[uncommon]

4. Yeah it's pretty ugly...

I'm 28 and most of my friends are underemployed at best.

I have college educated friends (some with graduate degrees) who are very smart and capable who are working in fast food restaurants and as janitors.

It's not pretty out there for my generation.

One of my friends has over $70,000 in student loans and he works as a kayaking instructor.

I'm one of the technically lucky ones but it took years for me to get into a job where I make a decent (though not what I expected when I was being pushed toward expensive higher education) living. And I have credit problems I am still cleaning up from those years which are screwing me from the possibility of having a nice car or buying a house before I'm 40.

[flyarm]

6. Last summer my son's company laid off 2000..most young up and coming ..shortly out of College

most of my friends kids out of college can not find jobs..

How's all the hope and change working for every young oerson..many I know are depressed ..and living back with their folks..

But then again..we were the old people no one wanted to listen to and we were called all sorts of names when we said we needed someone more experienced running the White House!

WTF did we know eh????

[LargeGreenSpider]

14. More experienced?

As in someone who'd been president of the United States before? What are you talking about??

[inna]

7. Crazy. Time to wake the f*ck up. KR.

[Xithras]

16. My 16 year old daughter applied for her first job last week.

One of her friends works at a local Starbucks and let her know that they'd just posted a new Help Wanted sign for an open position, so she jumped online and applied right away (Starbucks only does online applications). Four days later, the manager of the store took the sign down and pulled the position. He'd received more than two hundred applications in FOUR DAYS, mostly from adults, and many from people with college degrees and full blown resumes.

I can't imagine the desperation that would lead an educated college graduate to apply for a job making coffee.

[jtown1123]

17. That's the reality

unfortunately. I think the unemployment rate for 16-24 year olds is more than 20%. It's sad because people like your daughter may get squeezed out of the jobs that teens typically take.