High Teen Unemployment Molding 'Lost Generation'

[Cali_Democrat]

High Teen Unemployment Molding 'Lost Generation'
by Hansi Lo Wang

The Labor Department's latest unemployment report offered a small sign of hope, with the nation's jobless rate dipping to 9.1 percent in July. But the new numbers also showed that teen unemployment is still on the rise, now at 25 percent.

Across the country, 16- to 19-year-olds are facing the end of the third summer in a row of unemployment rates above 20 percent. Economists warn that if the trend continues, a generation of young people could face a bleak future in the workforce.

Jacquan Clark, 16, would have liked a job this summer, but he says the competition among his teenage peers is brutal.

"It's like crabs in a barrel," the Washington, D.C., resident says. "We're trying to all get jobs, but we're also pulling each other back because we want the jobs."

http://www.npr.org/2011/08/09/138996436/high-teen-unemployment-molding-lost-generation

The fact that the politicians in Washington aren't doing anything to help the unemployed is nothing short of criminal.

[TwilightGardener]

1. I don't think it's a big deal if a sixteen or seventeen year old who lives

with mom and dad (and is in school) doesn't have a job. Many of my friends in high school and college didn't work yet.

[Cali_Democrat]

4. And when they're done with high school or college,

they probably still won't be able to find work, just like millions of other Americans.

Hence the term 'Lost Generation'

[fishwax]

18. many people I know needed their high school/college jobs to make college possible

I also, of course, knew some who were only working for spending money ...

[dkf]

2. What kind of help is there for 16 year olds who can't find work?

You gonna give students summer unemployment checks even though they haven't lost a job?

[Cali_Democrat]

5. Nobody is suggesting that

However, this new generation will have it much harder than other generations when it comes to finding work. That much is obvious.

They will be feeling the pain of structural unemployment at an early age when they finish high school or college.

[LiberalEsto]

3. The 20- to 29-year-olds are screwed too

Too many of them are burdened with huge student loans and no jobs.

[RC]

6. The teens can't find jobs because mom and dad are working those jobs.

[county worker]

10. In what context do you say that?

If you are saying that older people working later in life is a cause in teen unemployment my reply to you is that there is a common reason both things are happening. That is the economic and political situation we are in.

Also us old farts are working in jobs that require our years of experience to do. We are not competing with jobs teens seek and they are not seeking the jobs we have. If a teen can do my job the employer would fire me and hire him/her because they could pay them less in spite of laws against age discrimination.

Another thought I have is that pitting working class people against each other hurts the situation and does not help it. What you are saying is that it is a zero sum game and that is just not true.

If all of us here at DU had our way there would be work for anyone who needed or wanted it. That is the situation that we should be fighting for.

I feel sad about the plight of younger people today. It is the fault of people my age but not everyone my age. I am 65 and will continue to work until it is economically feasible to retire.

Young people need to get engaged in the political battle to make a better world for themselves. Long after I am dead it will either be hell for them on earth or heaven but it won't get that way because I had anything to do with it in the coming years. My time is about up and it's their future that I will continue to care about and they need to start taking control of.

[SoCalDem]

11. There used to be a progression.

Teens started in entry level-trainee jobs..at lower wages. They got on-the-job training, and some might even stay there permanently after they graduated high school.

These jobs were usually in service oriented positions, or if the kid was lucky, at the place where Dad worked or Uncle whomever. It was a way for them to learn about working, firsthand.

To some degree these were "make-work" jobs during the time of year when full timers often took vacation, so a "kid" could actually learn a lot of skills, as he/she was shuffled in and out of various jobs during that summer.

The jobs that were full-time /grownup jobs, used to pay a family-supporting wage, and many had pension provisions so as people got to that age, they eagerly accepted the retirement, and everyone else moved up a notch..

That model is long gone now.

Women who used to work part time jobs occasionally to earn Christmas /vacation money, now often work multiple part time jobs to put food on the table, and those "Dad" jobs are now not enough to support a family, and come with no pension, and fewer and fewer benefits.

Parents & grandparents are now eagerly snatching up jobs that once upon a time, they would have assumed to be a "teenager's job".


Last night at dinner, there was a 50-ish busboy at the restaurant.. that never used to happen except in restaurants where a family ran the place and everyone did everything..

[county worker]

15. I agree with all you say here but, older people and teens are competing for unskilled jobs

just as everyone who needs a job and is willing to work what it pays. Everyone is teens, mom and pop and everyone in between. That is because of the unemployment situation and the war on the middle class.

My point is that a person like me who has over 30 years in a skilled job is not the reason teens are unemployed.

[SoCalDem]

17. true, but as boomers stay in longer than they might have otherwise,

it has to have an effect on the move-up that used to be an always-happening thing.

My husband is a prime example.. He would LOVE to retire, but is hanging onto his job as long as possible (he's 68) because..well you never know..and he married someone (me) who is 6 yrs younger, so he keeps working so I will have medical insurance.. I have 3 years to go before medicare for me is an option (if they don't kill it before then )

The ones just in-the-door will never replace the season workers, but stasis has set in because no one dares leave the job they have, and with no one leaving...anywhere....at any level, it makes entry level jobs harder to get too..

[XemaSab]

13. You said:

"Young people need to get engaged in the political battle to make a better world for themselves. Long after I am dead it will either be hell for them on earth or heaven but it won't get that way because I had anything to do with it in the coming years. My time is about up and it's their future that I will continue to care about and they need to start taking control of."

Yeah, that's why we voted for Obama.

[county worker]

16. Me too! Most middle class people my age have kids and grandkids

that they care about as well as themselves so they had a triple reason to vote for hope and change.

[jwirr]

7. We have a long history about molding a Lost Generation. I speak

of the inner cities and Native Americans. First Dad and Mom have no job. And it is because there are no jobs even though they keep looking for one. They lost their job when something like the present recession happened to their community - sometimes these go back for many years. For instance reservations are rural and there was never a Great Depression recovery in the FDR years so they were left out. The nearest thing they have had to a recovery is the casinos.

Second if Dad and Mom do not have a job and the whole community is pretty much unemployed the incentive to work in school just drys up. Why should I is a common phrase. This then leads to being eligible for only the unskilled jobs at low pay - once again, why should I? Once out of school if you cannot get a decent job the cycle continues. And you have a lost generation.

We have seen this happen in the above places and now it is hitting more of our children. If there is no intervention they will feel the same "why should I" hopelessness that is always present in long term unemployment eras.

The rez where I live has a casino and many of the families are now breaking out of this cycle. The tribe also has kept the youth jobs programs going with apprentice like jobs and also a road clean up crew. It gives these kids hope. But that is just a start at rebuilding the problems out here.

[killbotfactory]

8. let them eat ipods. nt

[JoeyT]

9. And yet we're told, even by some people here,

that what those kids really need is to pull themselves up by their bootstraps. A feat a lot of skilled laborers and college grads can't do right now.

I wouldn't personally define "Bootstraps" as "Offer to work for 12 cents an hour so you can compete with slave(prison and third world) labor", but I'm sure my definition is a pony or a rainbow or something.

On the plus side, if you want to train an entire generation to despise capitalism, this is the way to do it.

[ellisonz]

12. Those jobs haven't really been there since the early 2000s.

This country needs some rioting}(

[FLAprogressive]

14. It's because older people have to take those jobs...I've seen tons of older people in jobs that

teens usually work. (fast food, retail, etc.)

If we provided more social security, I can guarantee there'd be more jobs open for teens.