This MSN article about a possible lost generation, describes the dire job situation in the world for younger workers. It is not only in America that high school and college graduates are having difficulty finding jobs. Japan has had problems for years and now the whole world has joined in with economic turmoil that has especially hurt the younger workers trying to find work.
Jobs for college students and graduates are at a low point that many of us have never witnessed before. Students are thrust out into the workplace eager to find jobs and start earning money. For several years now though, the number of jobs have just not been there to match the number of new workers wanting them. This has led to an especially high unemployment rate for this young generation and much discontent.
Students go to college and pay very high tuition for one reason: to help them get a better job than they could have had they not gone. After putting in four or more hard years of study, to not have any hope of finding a job after graduation is demoralizing and even harmful. Without the right number of jobs, this generation is facing increased depression and they are facing all sorts of troubles on a widespread scale.
In order to save for retirement, the earlier you begin the better. Without jobs, younger workers cannot start saving or digging themselves out from under the college debt they have incurred. This has left many of them bitter and hope is something that is fading fast. Jobs for college students is the only thing that allows many of them to get by and start paying off their bills.
As older workers try to hang on to their jobs longer, the younger generation suffers in ways never seen before. When they finally do get a job sometime in the future, their enthusiasm for any sort of work may have dwindled. They may have financial pressures that they shouldn’t have as a result of not being to find work for so long. It is not a pretty overall picture.
Each generation has it’s hardships and this one seems to have inherited one where jobs are more scarce than ever before. Some generations have to deal with war and drafts and others have different challenges. It looks like it will be some time before there are enough jobs to satisfy the demand and until then, the younger workers are going to be the ones left on the sideline.