About 
2012
Print
EmailChances are that if you’re under the age of 25 and happen to read this blog you probably won’t view this entry until about 2:15 p.m. You know, after you eat breakfast.
I can understand why, though. It’s not like you have anything to do -- well at least not half of you anyway.
According to the Labor Department, the unemployment rate for young Americans has soared to 52.2 percent -- a post-World War II high. During previous recessions, in the early '80s and early '90s, unemployment among 16-to-24-year-olds never went above 50 percent.
If you’re middle aged, you may have taken a hit in the job market, but not like your great uncle and niece. The oldest and youngest workers have taken the hardest licks in this recession. Young workers have lost a total of 9.5 million jobs thus far.
That translates into a lot of high school students missing their opportunities to enjoy (or not) their first summer job and many newly collegiate graduates begrudgingly having to postpone the start of full fledge adulthood.
If any of you think it’s best that younger people suffer now rather than later, think again.
The New York Post reports [25]:
“…millions of Americans are staring at the likelihood that their lifetime earning potential will be diminished and, combined with the predicted slow economic recovery, their transition into productive members of society could be put on hold for an extended period of time.”
A study from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth says the damage to a new career by a recession can last 15 years.
Parents should worry because this news means it will take even longer for young adults to get out of their house. It will also take even longer for them to make their first car and home purchase -- putting the U.S. economy at further long-term risks.
The Post article tries to place the blame for all of this on Obama. While there’s not a rock big enough to smoke that would have me believe that, no matter how you spin it, young people are suffering.
If something isn’t done soon, the Kardashian’s will become young people’s heroes. Already far too many young people think “socialite” is a career title. Someone give us jobs to stop the madness.
Leave your comments below and send your recession stories to therecessiondiaries@gmail.com [26]
Comments