Posted on 09/04/2011 3:55:52 AM PDT by barmag25
Francis Murillo, 21, had a job this summer, putting her in the minority for her age group.
Getting a job is a less-than-common occurrence, and now that Murillo is back at school, away from home and her summer job, she’s rejoined the majority of her peers who either aren’t looking for work or just can’t find it.
“I don’t care where I’m working,” said the Johnson City, Tenn., resident last week while looking for another job in Chattanooga. “It’s really hard.”
According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, only 48.8 percent of those between 16 and 24 had a job in July, normally the peak of employment when school is out.
The share of teens and young adults employed this summer was the lowest on record.
“There’s two things going on, but they both conspire against young people,” said Carl Van Horn, a labor economist at Rutgers University. “The economy is bad, we know that. But the other thing that happens when the economy is bad is it has a ripple effect and it tends to push young workers out.”
Van Horn is an author of a recent report that surveyed college graduates. He found just over half are working full time with a median salary 10 percent lower than earnings of graduates three years earlier — before the recession hit.
Struggling businesses tend to lay off their most recent hires in tough economic times, pushing 25- to 30-year-old workers back into the job market, Van Horn said.
Those slightly older workers then grab jobs below their education and skill level that younger workers could have taken, keeping the youth unemployed.
Costly Resume Gaps
It’s a phenomenon not lost on 20-year-old University of Tennessee at Chattanooga student Tyrell McKinney, who has been looking for employment over the past few weeks.
“There’s just a lot of people looking for jobs and a lot of people trying to settle,” he said. “That just leaves out younger people trying to get jobs.”
As unemployed youth continue to search for work, the ever-expanding gaps in their resumes can cause long-term problems. Unable to take the first step in their careers, many young people aren’t learning the value and discipline of work and that could hurt their upward mobility for years, Van Horn said.
“A lot of employers look at that as a sign that there’s something wrong with the person,” Van Horn said. “It has a decadelong effect in terms of depressing your wages and salary.”
Many high school age job seekers are also feeling pushed aside.
Kyle Hixson, an 18-year-old senior at Chattanooga Christian School, took an unpaid internship this summer just to get experience.
“Any time you do something that puts you a little bit out of your comfort zone and pushes your limits, it’s definitely good for you,” he said. “It’s tough because at the age when we were able to get jobs, that’s when the economy got rough.”
The consequences of that rough economy are perhaps most serious for the recently graduated, who after time can give up on a job market with few signs of life.
“The worst thing that one worries about is people who just completely drop out of the labor market and engage in the underground market, illegal activities, crime,” Van Horn said.
Employed Outside Area of Study
Recent University of Georgia grad Colin Owen, 24, hasn’t fallen to crime but has needed to fall back on family as he enters his third month searching for a job.
When he went to college orientation in 2006, 80 percent of graduates in his landscape architecture program had jobs and the remainder found work within six months. Out of the 80 students who graduated with him in May, he hasn’t heard of a single one landing a landscape architecture job, Owen said.
Owen applied to every prospective civil engineering firm in Tennessee, South Carolina and Texas and is working his way through North Carolina.
“It’s hard to find anything, whether it’s just a ‘pay the bills’ job or a career,” he said. “The two biggest challenges are making what little money I have last and then just the constant bombardment of being told no. Even if you know you have a great resume, great portfolio, great credentials, being turned down, after a while, it’s nothing personal but mentally it gets to you.”
As usual there is no mention of minimum wage increase to $7.25/hr in 2009; that couldn’t be a factor in high youth unemployment, academic studies like that of new WH chief economic adviser Krueger have proved that.
Pretty amazing really. In the face of a major economic downturn the fools in congress raise the minimum wage... And then wonder what happened to teen unemployment... Duh...
In the lib/socialist utopia, everything will be free. Unfortunately we have nothing available...but when we do, it is FREE!
There are a lot of free online classifieds.
I need someone to wax my cars My arthritis bother me with all that polishing, be glad to pay $40 bucks to get the job done right and I will supply the polish. I have gutters that need cleaning and a ditch I need to be cut.
I wonder if any of them think to place a free ad.
Not to mention that I would not have to know the spanish words for menu items at just about any fast food place in a 50-mile radius...
It was the first thing the Democrats did when they took over in ‘06. Wasn’t it Teddy Kennedy’s last great legacy?
If you’re into a little bitter laughter with your coffee , read this old piece with its rosy expectations:http://money.cnn.com/2009/07/24/news/economy/minimum_wage/index.htm
This is a national tragedy.
I was walking with my neighbor the other morning in the park and you should have seen all the 50 somethings there, male and female and couples.
No one, but no one is getting hired.
Hope and Change !
Kinda seems really silly now doesn’t it?
These “economists” couldn’t reason their way out of a wet paper bag... They really need to find a new line of work. They are utterly incompetent.
Might be hard to get those jobs filled. When I was in school we had auto shop, wood shop, and Agriculture class. We learned the basics of car maintenance, carpentry, gardening & canning, even some basic home repair and maintenance. All of this along with regular studies.
Those courses have been replaced by cosmetology, Sexual education, and social media courses.
This summer I had an intern(college Junior) in my department that I worked with daily that couldn’t address an envelope, write a check, change his own oil, or identify basic hand tools.
I talked to him last week I promised I would be there next spring when he receives his BS in mechanical engineering.
These skills have nothing to do with ME. What's your point? An engineering firm is looking for bright people to work on design projects, not someone who is qualified to work at jiffy lube. No I do find it odd the an ME has no interest in tools etc. But that doesn't mean that can't design an HVAC system.
I didn’t get your post. The guy can’t do anything, but you are willing to help?
Just saying a lot of the younger kids don’t find those jobs interesting anymore. Its all about iphones and facebook nowadays.
Of course I helped him. Basic skills are not taught anymore in schools. Even taught him how to shoot.
Everyone uses automatic bill payer, email, and goes to jiffy lube.
You are a good person.
I think you have hit the nail on the head. These people are so conditioned to working for someone else, they haven't though to start their own business.
Even an 'odd jobs and handyman' business could help pay the bills, and could grow into something bigger.
"Why, in America they haven't spoken it in yeeers."
"Francis Murillo, 21, had a job this summer, putting her in the minority for her age group."
Y'see, Frances, the girl is spelled with an 'E', not an 'I'.
The 'I' is for the male, Francis, whereas the 'E' is the female. Frances.
Soooo .. good luck getting a job in an illiterate society, Frannie.
As politely as possible my rebuttle to you comment. The practical you need to properly design complex integrated systems comes not only from a course of studies in your chosen field but from practical knowledge. This practical experience is something sorely lacking in american education.
As a contractor who has to implement designs I will tell you the best designers are the ones with hands on experience and ones with a relationship to tools, techniques, and real world realities.
The absolute worst to work with are the office, I never get my hands dirty because it’s beneath my station in life types. They may produce great stand alone systems, but usually are not able to be integrated in real world applications.
Sort of like progressive thinking, sounds good to most of us on paper (equal outcomes for all imposed by fiat, no strife, ect) but falls far short in the real life practicum.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.