Youth employment is at its lowest level since World War II. The recession has been hard on all workers, especially the youngest. So what are the consequences of high unemployment? And what can we do to battle the trend?
College is in many cases a total con. Those who choose to go should make damn sure that they are 1) taking it seriously and actually learning something, and 2) getting a *real* degree in a legitimate and rigorous academic subject that has demand in the marketplace of jobs. Sadly, all universities have over the last few decades created scores of politically correct Bulls__t degrees just so that "everyone can go to college." This is bad for taxpayers who pay for them, bad for students who are conned out of time and money and don't really learn anything, and bad for universities because their reputations as sound academic institutions have in many cases disappeared.Tom Hurst –Dec 6, 2012 16:16:06 PM
I have 2 B.S. degrees in Psychology and Public Relations and have not been able to find work in either. I was able to get a job in retail and now IT. The problem with my peer group is we have so much debt from school loans (I'm at 30K) with no applicable jobs to pay it back. If I wanted to work as a retail manager I would not have gone to school, but that is what's available. I now work in IT, but have no formal education in the field nor was my college education related.Marshall K –Dec 6, 2012 15:40:18 PM
I would suggest two huge problems in addition to the generally poor state of the economy: 1) degree inflation has assured that current high school and college graduates are but pale imitations of comparable youth of decades ago, and 2) high minimum wage rates have assured that youth that don't have the skills, education or maturity to justify that wage, low as one might think it is, are simply not hired. Bottom line, we need to really educate people instead of giving them "fake" degrees, and then let them work for whatever wage is offered so that they at least have the opportunity to demonstrate or improve their skills so that they can ultimately command a higher wage. Believe it or not, businesses need people who are actually productive, and economics demands that these people cannot be paid more than they are worth to the company.Tom Hurst –Dec 5, 2012 14:10:15 PM
