Posted on 04/25/2012 9:41:33 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
The USA Today reports graduating class of 2012 is in for a rude awakening as Half of new graduates are jobless or underemployed.
A weak labor market already has left half of young college graduates either jobless or underemployed in positions that don't fully use their skills and knowledge.Useless Degrees
Young adults with bachelor's degrees are increasingly scraping by in lower-wage jobs — waiter or waitress, bartender, retail clerk or receptionist, for example — and that's confounding their hopes a degree would pay off despite higher tuition and mounting student loans.
Median wages for those with bachelor's degrees are down from 2000, hit by technological changes that are eliminating midlevel jobs such as bank tellers. Most future job openings are projected to be in lower-skilled positions such as home health aides, who can provide personalized attention as the U.S. population ages.
Taking underemployment into consideration, the job prospects for bachelor's degree holders fell last year to the lowest level in more than a decade."I don't even know what I'm looking for," says Michael Bledsoe, who described months of fruitless job searches as he served customers at a Seattle coffeehouse. The 23-year-old graduated in 2010 with a creative writing degree.
About 1.5 million, or 53.6%, of bachelor's degree-holders under the age of 25 last year were jobless or underemployed, the highest share in at least 11 years. In 2000, the share was at a low of 41%, before the dot-com bust erased job gains for college graduates in the telecommunications and IT fields.
Out of the 1.5 million who languished in the job market, about half were underemployed, an increase from the previous year. Broken down by occupation, young college graduates were heavily represented in jobs that require a high school diploma or less.In the last year, they were more likely to be employed as waiters, waitresses, bartenders and food-service helpers than as engineers, physicists, chemists and mathematicians combined (100,000 versus 90,000). There were more working in office-related jobs such as receptionist or payroll clerk than in all computer professional jobs (163,000 versus 100,000). More also were employed as cashiers, retail clerks and customer representatives than engineers (125,000 versus 80,000).
According to government projections released last month, only three of the 30 occupations with the largest projected number of job openings by 2020 will require a bachelor's degree or higher to fill the position — teachers, college professors and accountants. Most job openings are in professions such as retail sales, fast food and truck driving, jobs which aren't easily replaced by computers.
Bledsoe, currently making just above minimum wage, says he has received financial help from his parents to help pay off student loans. He is now mulling whether to go to graduate school, seeing few other options to advance his career. "There is not much out there, it seems," he said.There is nothing out there for many degrees which means that going to graduate school will do nothing but waste more money. Nurses are still in demand, but technology and engineering majors are crapshoots. If you can land a technology or engineering job it is likely to be high paying, but if not, the next step is retail sales.
I believe the so called youth vote/millenials will not turn out in high numbers for obama. They really like being able to buy things and than only happens if they, or their parents, have jobs. You know..jobs...that three letter word according to Joe Biden.
I have no problem with this because a majority of the little dopes vote democrat, just like in 1980. Stupid ass, Che loving marxist retards can go on welfare. It’s BO’s pleasure.
What we need to do is forgive their student loans and immediately offer them unemployment benefits because unemployment compensation creates jobs per Nancy Pelosi. / SAR
Here's a thought, Mr. Bledsoe...rather than blow another $75,000 on a graduate degree, when you're "not even sure what you're looking for..." is throwing good money after bad. If you want to get out from under that undergrad debt, go to a community college and pick up a trade or license as a plumber or electrician. Then, you'll be able to use your creative writing degree to draft up proposals and bids for jobs.
Younger voters shift from Obama
http://dailycaller.com/2012/04/25/younger-voters-shift-from-obama/
Once thought to be solidly behind President Barack Obama, younger voters burdened by a bleak employment picture, high gas prices and student loan debt are being aggressively wooed by the Democrat and his likely Republican challenger, Mitt Romney.
In 2008, Obama had a 34-point advantage over Republican Sen. John McCain among voters under age 30. He won about two-thirds of the vote in that age group.
But a new Harvard poll suggests the president may face a harder sales job with younger voters this time around. Obama led Romney by 12 points among those ages 18-24, according to the survey. Among those in the 25-29 age group, Obama held a 23-point advantage.
It’s an opening Republicans hope to exploit by focusing on young people’s disillusionment with the candidate who promised “hope” and “change.”
Read more: http://dailycaller.com/2012/04/25/younger-voters-shift-from-obama/#ixzz1t4Vd3LmF
I’m waiting for the first poster to say something along the lines of “The only decent major to have in college is engineering.”
C’mon I know you’re out there.
Excellent suggestion with zero chance of implementation.
Your plan would make sense to him if, instead of going to college, he had worked in any job for a couple of years.
College delays maturity.
With off-shoring, H1-B Visas and sending our technical projects to China/India/Singapore where the labor is cheaper - the days of the "Engineer" are pretty much gone. I can't say I'd recommend an engineering degree to anyone.
If I had been smart, I'd have pursued a degree in Healthcare Administration. I'd have a much higher salary, job security and expanded opportunties. Plus, no Theoretical Physics, Differential Equations, Advanced Calculus, Number Theory, Thermo/Dynamics/Statics, Materials Science, Antenna theory - the classwork would have been exponentially easier.
I saw the same article earlier in the week, over on the Yahoo Finance section--complete with a picture. It seems that Mr. Bledsoe also has a nose ring--the kind that goes through the septum--and some gaudy "ear lobe" rings (rivets?)
His "creative writing" degree may not be the ONLY thing, keeping him from a minimum-wage job.
I don’t remember Shakespeare, the Bronte sisters, Dickens, etc earning Creative Writing degrees from Oxford.
I guess Zero can’t expect much enthusiasm from Millenials this time given that so many are broke.
While it might not be exactly what they signed up for when they persued an engineering degree, there are still plenty of jobs out there for those with the degrees. There are jobs for project managers, quality managers, requirements' analysts, customer liasons, sales reps, etc. that are highly dependent on engineering backgrounds, and that are not nearly as outsourced as the actual engineer work.
Again, that might not be what they wanted to do, but they can continue to work in an engineering-related company or project.
That first lesson in the reality of Democrat economics, and it’s cause/effect relationship can be very harsh, and karmic.
It’s a damned shame this generation is having to learn, the hard way, that Democrat Rhetoric and Reality never match, like we did under Carter.
I believe the earrings are called “gauges”.
Oh, but, man...Obama is so “coooooool!”
Tell it to Jimmy Fallon. Maybe he can “slow jam” this news to all our nation’s little commie Obama lovin’ yufs.
Thanks for the information, I had no idea. I believe some hiring managers call them "job interview killers."
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