difficult job market for young people

Discussion in 'United States' started by JoakimFlorence, May 9, 2016.

  1. JoakimFlorence

    JoakimFlorence Banned

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    The national unemployment rate has dropped to 5%, the lowest it has been since 2008, but this low percentage means nothing for the Millennial generation (born between 1980-2000).

    By this point droves of Millennials have become disillusioned: working hard and getting a solid education does not necessarily lead to career success or a decent-paying job.

    What it does lead to is student loan debt and a ruthless job hunt.

    The data is actually pretty scary: 44% of college grads in their 20s are stuck in low-wage, dead-end jobs, the highest rate in decades, and the number of young people making less than $25,000 has also spiked to the highest level since the 1990s.

    The main factor behind the absence of good jobs for Millennials seems to be that employers are preferring to fill jobs with older adult workers, who often times have more job experience and are seen as harder working or more dependable. Even many jobs that were formerly considered entry level, such as store clerks and valet drivers, have become filled up by more mature workers.
     
  2. JoakimFlorence

    JoakimFlorence Banned

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    Millennials can’t afford to buy houses, even though the US really needs them to

     
  3. Deckel

    Deckel Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    I am buying a house and have never been involuntarily unemployed. I know plenty of people like me in that regard, and I know plenty of people unlike me in that regard. For me I think it is a combination of things in no particular order: 1) I have always worked whether or not I am getting paid for it. When I am getting paid for it, I have never complained or said no to working extra hours; avoid taking time off; and looked for chances to do new things without waiting for people to make me do new things. 2) When I see people needing help, I help them. I don't ask them if they need help, rather I just do it it whether they want help or not. As a result, I have never had a problem finding people to help me when I need help. 3) Because of 1 and 2, I have never had a problem finding work. I know lots of people and lots of people know I carry my fair share and then some. If I decide I want a new job, I just let it be known I am looking for a new job, and people will ask around, put in a word, etc. so I am ahead of the game before I even show up for an interview. Lastly 4) In the real world, I am pleasant, well-mannered, and even-keeled. I don't curse a lot, I don't get upset a lot. I don't feel entitled to more than I have agreed to or need. I am not afraid of much, including standing up for what I think is right, or speaking up for myself in a reasoned articulate manner.

    A lot of this stuff is the old snowball metaphor. Just as bad things snowball against a person; good things can snowball for a person. It is just a matter of making good choices.

    All that said, I know a lot of people who prefer to rent because either they refuse to commit to staying in one place or because they do not want the hassle of maintenance, taxes, insurance, etc.
     
  4. JoakimFlorence

    JoakimFlorence Banned

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    I am wondering whether a lot of this is regional, whether it's different in different parts of the country.
    That may be a big part of what's shaping the political divide; people are experiencing totally different situations in different regions of the country. What "works" for people in one area may seem difficult to understand for people in another area.

    Deckel, you sound like you're in an area with not as many people, where housing prices are not extremely high and there's more of a sense of community. Just taking a stab in the dark here but maybe Texas or Illinois?
     
  5. JoakimFlorence

    JoakimFlorence Banned

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    Looks like the lack of opportunity is already beginning to lead to some social problems:

    http://www.nytimes.com/2016/01/17/s...-rise-in-mortality-rates-of-young-whites.html

    Presumably I don't have to explain the link between drug use and economic circumstances.


    http://www.nytimes.com/2016/04/22/health/us-suicide-rate-surges-to-a-30-year-high.html

    http://www.newsmax.com/McCaughey/hillary-employment-jobs-suicides/2016/04/27/id/725978/
     
  6. RPA1

    RPA1 Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    Decades ago when I was first facing getting a job....Jobs were scarce. The difference is, I was taught that any job was better than no job at all. I pounded the pavement just to get a menial job so I could support myself. Then I worked my way up, took better jobs etc. Today I own my own fairly successful business.

    I think today, promises made to youth make them think they are immune from hard work.
     
  7. JoakimFlorence

    JoakimFlorence Banned

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    True, in the old days it could be hard to find a job. But now young people are not only having trouble finding a job but trouble finding housing as well.

    Maybe America is going to have to go back to the multigenerational family where the children stayed on with their parents for many years after they became married. Same thing with the old who were never able to save up enough for retirement; Grandma will likely be living in the house too since the family can't afford to put her away in a nursing home.
     
  8. JoakimFlorence

    JoakimFlorence Banned

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    https://medium.com/@mshannabrooks/b...ut-millennial-poverty-526066ad9adb#.yfv7q6kc3
     
  9. JoakimFlorence

    JoakimFlorence Banned

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    Even many college graduates now are teetering on the edge of homelessness.
    I found this posted in the comment section of another site:

    https://www.washingtonpost.com/loca...257b5c-20ca-11e5-bf41-c23f5d3face1_story.html
     
  10. JoakimFlorence

    JoakimFlorence Banned

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    An unsettling labor report issued by the UCLA Labor Center finds that 57 percent of "young workers" in Los Angeles County are in low-wage jobs.

    According to the report, earning $13.38 per hour or less qualifies as a low-wage job. Young adults (ages 18 to 29 ) in low-wage jobs in the county make a median hourly income of $9.04.

    The weak earning power of young workers may also explain the ongoing student loan crisis spurred by the failure of many to pay back what they have borrowed.

    Included in the report’s findings are a quarter of Los Angeles workers are young people. The young workers are more educated than any previous generation, but have experienced a 10.8 percent decline in income since 2000. Young workers experience a higher unemployment rate (16.8 percent) than other workers (9.2 percent).



    sources:
    http://www.breitbart.com/california...-a-millennial-workers-stuck-in-low-wage-jobs/
    http://www.labor.ucla.edu/young-worker-snapshot/ (report published September 2015 )
     
  11. Oxymoron

    Oxymoron Well-Known Member

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    Yeah keep pushing for 15$ per hour wages you (*)(*)(*)(*)ing dumb mother (*)(*)(*)(*)ing idiots.
     
  12. JoakimFlorence

    JoakimFlorence Banned

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    The real issue is that the demand is not there. A 15$ minimum wage might help lead to some more overall demand in the economy, but it's really a coverall bandage.

    On the other hand, if the country had implemented a 15$ minimum wage before it brought in so many cheap foreign laborers (mostly undocumented), that might have curtailed a substantial portion of the immigration and population the U.S. has experienced over the last 3 decades. So then there would probably not be as much poverty in the country.

    However, with so many minimum wage workers now, a 15$ minimum wage would have a distorting effect on the economy. Teenagers, young adults, old people, and the mentally handicapped would feel the brunt of it—basically the less desirable workers. But then again, this is the same group that has already been the most affected by competition with immigrant labor. I mean, if you've already been displaced out of the labor market, you can hardly lose a job you don't have. So the actual affects might not be so huge. Certainly some workers would benefit, the unemployment levels might not change that much.

    Maybe Americans would be less able to utilize cheap immigrant labor. That means less eating out, having to wash your own car, having to clean your own house and maintain your own yard. A 15$ minimum wage would have a huge affect on all the low-end immigrant labor, it would basically be displaced out of the economy. They would have to go back to the countries they came from, though some of them would not be able to. I'd imagine there'd be riots.
     
  13. JoakimFlorence

    JoakimFlorence Banned

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    Young adults cannot afford houses:

    http://www.doctorhousingbubble.com/broke-young-and-unable-to-afford-a-home/


    We have a dramatically high number of adults living at home seemingly during an economic recovery. Remember the recession has been officially over for nearly half a decade. Why do we continue to see a massive number of young adults living at home?
    What is interesting is that this trend for the young is not new. It actually has been on-going for many years:

    [​IMG]

    Builders realize that the nation is becoming one where more people will be renters out of economic necessity so multi-unit housing starts (i.e., apartments) are now going back up.

    After all, if you were a builder what motivation would you have to try to capture the attention of an audience with a median net worth of close to zero dollars. Older Americans, many who already own, are not in the market for new homes.
     
  14. JoakimFlorence

    JoakimFlorence Banned

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  15. JoakimFlorence

    JoakimFlorence Banned

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    The percent of Americans age 25-34 still living with their parents has climbed from 7.5% in 1970, to 12.5% in 2010.

    [​IMG]

    Between the ages of 18-34, it has climbed from 27.5% in 1995, to 31% in 2014

    [​IMG]

    The average young adult today is less independent than they were a generation ago. Much of this has to do with housing affordability issues, but the availability of jobs and low earnings also play a role.
     
  16. Sushisnake

    Sushisnake Active Member

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    It's happened (and happening) in Australia and the UK, too. And we won't go near the horrendeous youth unemployment in parts of Europe.
     
  17. Iriemon

    Iriemon Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    The sample period for the data used in the article was the first part of 2013, more than three years ago, and reflecting the effects of the GR. The UR was at 8%, not 5%, when the data for the article was gathered. To portray the data as being current is misleading.
     
  18. Iriemon

    Iriemon Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    We have far fewer jobs where wages are based on the value of the labor and far more based on market value since the massive decline of union and group representation and negotiation. It should be no surprise there are far fewer good paying jobs.
     
  19. Iriemon

    Iriemon Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    A lot of the data in that report is 2-3 years old as well.

    - - - Updated - - -

    Heaven forbid. It might crack into the profits of the 0.1%.
     
  20. kazenatsu

    kazenatsu Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    Something for people to realize here, the rate of drug overdoses has also surged during the same time period.
    If even two-thirds of these overdoses are seen as suicides, the real suicide rate might actually be twice as high as it's reported to be.

    The official rate (2016) for the 25-34 year age group is 16.5 (per 100,000), representing a 37.5% increase over the year 2000.

    A little bit of further calculation shows that only 0.6% of the total population between 14-34 will die from suicide.
    An additional 0.34% will die from overdosing on heroine, 0.2% from prescription opioids.
    In other words, slightly over 1% of young adults in the population will end up killing themselves during this 20-year timespan of their lives.
     
    Last edited: Feb 5, 2018
  21. crank

    crank Well-Known Member

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    Graduated with honours in WHAT? That is the key here.

    And how in heck could she have been homeless at that age? Why didn't she just go live with her parents or siblings?
     
  22. crank

    crank Well-Known Member

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    If they are taking courses in anything outside of STEM, then they are doing this to themselves. They are incurring a debt for studying something which won't provide them the income to repay it. They are idiots, in other words.

    Meantime ... if they took a useless degree, AND they regard themselves as too special to stay at home with mom & dad until they're earning a decent living and have paid off all debt - plus saved a down-payment on a small apartment, they are even bigger idiots.
     
  23. crank

    crank Well-Known Member

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    This is not a result of 'society', it's a result of bad parenting.
     
  24. kazenatsu

    kazenatsu Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    Hate to break it to you but the notion that employers can't find enough STEM graduates and that STEM graduates have no trouble getting a good job is a myth.
    There have been some other threads about that on here (sorry, can't seem to find them right now).

    To make a long story short, basically the official statistics are misleading, since many of these graduates can only get non-tenured teaching positions or assistant positions working only 30 hours a week with salaries that are nothing to write home about, and many of them have ended up having to work in other fields not related to STEM. Tech employers have been perpetuating the myth that there's a terrible shortage so they could lobby Congress to bring in lower cost skilled workers on H1-B visas. Universities are not going to speak up about this either because they've been getting more government funding for all this.
     
    Last edited: Feb 5, 2018

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