Bad News for Young Workers
Depressing news from Tyler Cowen:
For Americans aged 16 to 24 who aren’t enrolled in school, the employment picture is grim. Only 36 percent are working full time, down 10 percentage points from 2007. Longer term, the overall labor-force participation rate for that age group has dropped 20 percentage points for men and 14 points for women since 1989.
It gets worse:
Falling wages for new entrants to the job market suggest that a sizeable chunk of the American labor force may never achieve middle-class wages in a relatively secure full-time job.
And then there is this:
To focus on policy alone is to miss the gravity of the situation.
Young people aren’t learning the entry level skills that will help them be successful. We are creating an entitled generation that has little skill.
We will continue to create future generations that are not prepared for the job market at this rate.
The job market will begin to reflect these lack of skills and our economy will become less skilled.
Looks ominous.
Extremely
a 23-year-old who is working part time as a dog walker, yoga instructor or retail clerk may be having fun, but perhaps will receive fewer promotions as a 47-year-old.
We often hear jokes about the unmotivated, nerdy teenage male we feel is destined to extend his adolescence indefinitely by living in his parents’ basement, playing video games, learning to speak a fake language like Vulcan and decorating his bedroom like the bridge from the starship Enterprise on the SciFi series Star Trek.
Is this really a symptom of the economy? Or does this have something to do with extending adolescence to the detriment of those engaging in this folly. Haven’t unmotivated slackers been with us for as long as society (and their parents) permitted it?
To focus on policy along is to miss the gravity of the situation? Really?
It is well known what policies have to be changed to reverse the drop in labor market participation. Why would anyone who cares about the plight of the young unemployed encourage a focus on something other than reversing them?
In a way, focusing on just policy alone may not be enough.
There are a lot of factors, but it’s hard to believe that bad policy isn’t what started the ball rolling in the wrong direction.
Depressing news indeed….
I wonder if those who voted for policies that have led us here will make the connection between their unemployment and the incentives in place that have created this job environment.
The past generations are the ones that put the policies in place. They are doing just fine, while the current and future generations suffer.
I agree with Linda; what are we to do instead? Seems a policy focus is the only productive outlet.
We simply need to reverse the bad policies.
There is no single answer, but health care is playing an ironic part in this shortage of decent jobs.
When I was growing up in the 1960’s. I went to quite a few funerals of male executives in their 50’s. Smoking, drinking, stress, whatever, knocked them out and opened up new jobs.
Let;s imagine the following oversimplified scenario:
You or I get a job at age 25. We have a child at our age 30.
When the child is 25 and looking for a job, we are just 55.
If we have not retired and cannot retire, then without a lot of economic growth there is no job for our child,
Helping older persons survive heart attacks does not help the job market I suspect.