Great Recession yields a lost generation of workers

[Liberal_in_LA]

Great Recession yields a lost generation of workers
New 2010 census data show wrenching impact of economic downturn on young adults

"We have a monster jobs problem, and young people are the biggest losers," said Andrew Sum, an economist and director of the Center for Labor Market Studies at Northeastern University. He noted that for recent college grads now getting by with waitressing, bartending and odd jobs, they will have to compete with new graduates for entry-level career positions when the job market eventually does improve.

"Their really high levels of underemployment and unemployment will haunt young people for at least another decade," Sum said.

Richard Freeman, an economist at Harvard University, added, "These people will be scarred, and they will be called the 'lost generation' — in that their careers would not be the same way if we had avoided this economic disaster."

Beyond the economy's impact, the new figures also show a rebound in the foreign-born population to 40 million, or 12.9 percent, the highest share since 1920. The 1.4 million increase from 2009 was the biggest since the mid-decade housing boom and could fuel debate in this election season about U.S. immigration strategy.

Most immigrants continue to be low-skilled workers from Latin America, with growing numbers from Asia also arriving on the bet that U.S. jobs await. An estimated 11.2 million immigrants are here illegally.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/44623502/ns/business-stocks_and_economy/#.TnuT4uzAWU0

[Warpy]

1. The Depression did, too

but I'm amazed by the ones who later went on to be very successful, even after getting their start in their mid 30s instead of their 20s. That generation got a double whammy: the Depression followed closely by WWII.

[ChandlerJr]

2. Many of that generation were pulled out of the depression by WW11

My Old Man quit HS to join the Navy after Pearl Harbor, learned some skills as a Quartermaster in the Pacific Theater, picked up his GED and when he returned used his GI benefits to go to college then Law School and buy his 1st house and pretty much have a good life. None of which may have been possible without the war.

[Warpy]

3. All the programs were working when in 1936, a conservative Congress

insisted on a balanced budget, something that ended too many of those programs prematurely and directly caused the Great Recession of 1937.

Your Dad was pulled out of that recession, caused by conservatives, not the Great Depression, by WWII.

Saying the Depression was ended by the war is right wing boilerplate and not true. The war ended the recession that a bunch of conservatives caused by forcing working programs to end.

[ChandlerJr]

4. Right wing boilerplate and not true? I have never heard Dr. Paul Krugman

referred to as a right wing shill before. Who to believe, an anonymous poster on this website or a Noble Laureate in economics? Tough choice. I'll go with Krugman.

And I quote:

What saved the economy, and the New Deal, was the enormous public works project known as World War II, which finally provided a fiscal stimulus adequate to the economy’s needs.

This history offers important lessons for the incoming administration.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/10/opinion/10krugman.html

Sorry, you don't have any credibility.

[Warpy]

6. You can't hope to win an argument by name dropping.

Krugman has been wrong about other things, like the massive rigging of commodities markets in 2007 by hedge funds and investment bankers and the same manipulation going on today. The smoking gun was found for the 2008 manipulation of the oil market but Krugman has yet to admit he was wrong about that, too.

Just because he's one of the sensible economists doesn't mean he's right about everything. He's wrong about the end of the Depression and needs to review the history, as do you.

[ChandlerJr]

7. Name dropping. NAME DROPPING?

Sorry Warp, but I don't know you from Adam. Perhaps you could direct me to some of your published peer reviewed papers on economics, maybe your doctoral thesis is available online somewhere.

60,000 posts here don't impress me, I'll choose to give Krugman the benefit of a doubt when it comes to the history of the depression.

[KillCapitalism]

5. Yep, I'm part of it.

I'm 31 years old and a 99er. I'm starting to think I'll never work another day in my life & it's certainly not because I don't want to.