Young and Unemployed

By: Tyler Dratch

As young people start to look for jobs this year they may find far less “help wanted signs than they expected. This has mainly been caused by the ongoing economic recession the country has been facing since 2008. During the recession, unemployment rates hit a peak around 10% in 2009 and have only improved to around 8.8% as of March 2011. This unemployment number may be a bit misleading since a person is only unemployed in this count if they are receiving specific government benefits. This means that Americans who have given up looking for a job, or those who have been unemployed for longer than ninety-nine weeks and have lost their benefits are not counted in the unemployment measure. The recession and unemployment crisis have led to a major transformation of the job market. Unfortunately, this will greatly impact that young person or recent graduate looking for their first job.

With so many Americans finding it difficult to get back into the job market, many have chosen to start applying for jobs they feel they are overqualified for. This means that they have a higher level of education or experience than the average person who takes a similar job they are pursuing. While this means that these employees are also compromising for less pay, many of them are happy to have a job at all. For employers, there are many benefits to hiring an overqualified worker. The time and expense of training an experienced worker is much shorter, and on average quality of work is probably better.

This transformation of the labor force is going to make it very difficult for younger workers and recent graduates to find appropriate jobs. An overwhelming number of studies show that younger and less educated workers are affected disproportionally during an unemployment crisis. For young people to advance in their careers they usually take an entry level job, and then work their way up to jobs that require a higher level of education or experience. If these entry-level jobs do not exist for younger workers, the trajectory of their careers could be delayed or thrown off completely.

There are a few things young people can do to become more employable. For high school students looking for a summer or temporary job, they should make sure to plan on searching harder and applying for many jobs than they intended to. If economically possible, students should study to earn a four year bachelors degree program, and even consider continuing their education to receive a masters or graduate degree. A higher level of education makes a person much more employable, and while jobs are so hard to come by, this may be the perfect time to go to school. Finally, there are certain careers that are not affected as heavily by an economic recession. Try to find a job that can’t be outsourced, downsized, or canned all together. These jobs may be hard to find, but they do exist.

While there are promising signs that the economy is improving, the expansion of the job market will not occur for a significant amount of time, Employers higher new workers based on their confidence that the economy will be strong. This means that the economy actually has to recover before hiring picks up again. While the job market may look dismal to young people now, there are many ways to become more employable and to weather this recession.