“Young Workers: A Lost Decade.”

reply to post by kosmicjack


I'm 26. I have a 2-year and 4-year degree. One in I.T. the other in management. I work a job where I barely make enough to pay for my cellphone, used car, gas, and clothes to dress for the job. I have to pay $900 a year for my own health insurance because my company doesn't offer it. They do not support a 401k fund, so I have to save $50 a month on my own. I also live at home w/parents.

I can't find a decent job in my field if my life depended on it. Meanwhile, I work for a under-educated, over-paid, lazy boss who is nearly 60 and refuses to retire. So I work day in and out to busting my ass to make her look good and watch her take credit for everything I do.


Do I fall into this group of people under age 32? Absolutely, but it is not by choice. It's from lack of opportunity and greed by higher ups.

reply to post by fooffstarr



You don't give your age, which is fine, but I'm wondering if you were part of, or at least aware that the situation you describe was already biting deep in the late 80s and through the 90s in Australia?

It commenced really with the Hawke, Keating Labour government. You might have heard of Keating's famous 'the recession we had to have' ?

You might also remember at least hearing from your parents about Keating's 'Go get a job' remark .. complete with insane grin .. to scores of young people trying to get him to understand that there were no jobs out there.

At least you'll have the opportunity these days of seeing an ageing, fat Keating trying to redeem himself (as if) by posing as a concerned big-wig trying to save Sydney Harbour foreshores from development.

We were on the Gold Coast and our kids were still in high-school when it became apparent that jobs were few and far between. At the time, the education INDUSTRY was exhorting parents to 'keep your kids in school until this recession breaks'. Yes, keep the kids in school, pay further hundreds of thousands of dollars sending them to uni to get a piece of paper that will supposedly ensure them a well-paid career .. even though most will be paying their HECS fees until their middle years (or never).

My son applied for work with a major golf course-resort. Fortunately, when school recommenced, he went back to school. The golf resort didn't reply. No wonder. When it DID acknowledge applications, it was via the Gold Coast Bulletin newspaper, to say that as 1,800 people had applied, this public announcement must serve to thank all applicants and advise that the 'position has been filled'. 1,800 had applied for that part-time job(that was 14 or so years ago, so it's been bad a long time).

At the same time, the Gold Coast Bulletin was running feature articles about young men in the rural sector who were condemned to permanent unemployment, no prospects, no futures, no chance of marrying or even of moving out of their parents' home. Suicide within this group was staggeringly high.

So it was back in the late 80's and all through the 90s that I was describing those most affected (the young) as the Sacrificed Generation.

We saw friends of our children come out of uni and grab work slicing meat in kebab joints. We saw girls with degrees take work on nightclub steps in Surfers, wearing cheap red satin split to the waist dresses as they tried to lure tourists into the club.

By the time our kids had their degrees, we got out of Queensland (one of the worst places affected) and reluctantly moved to Sydney. It paid off as far as our children's careers are concerned, but it took a definite drop in quality of life to achieve, Sydney being as it is.

Now it's bad in Sydney too, despite it's having the largest population of any city in the country. We're aware of two people who were at the top of the tree in their chosen professions. They're now working part-time in low-paid jobs and happy just to have work. NSW State government is almost broke and is not replacing staff as well as conducting 'reviews' in almost every department (review = shorthand for staff cuts).

It's bad in Australia now and it was bad even a decade and more ago, when the rest of the world was reportedly cruising.

Howard claimed he'd restored 'full employment'. What a farce. The last time Australia actually enjoyed full employment (real figures) was in the early 70s. No resumes then. Written reference or two would suffice. You could leave a job at 10 in the morning and have half a dozen offers from which to choose, by mid-afternoon. It was commonly known that unemployment was 1.5%. In other words, everyone who wanted to work was able to. The average blue-collar worker was able to pay his mortgage and hire purchase (car and furniture, etc) AND put money aside, AND take the family on at least one holiday each year .. with ease. Women didn't need to work and raised their children. Apprenticeships were there for the taking.

If you'd told people then how it would be only two decades later, no-one would believe it. Yet it happened. Just as millions of unskilled migrants were brought in thanks to Hawke, at the same time as import duty on imported goods was dropped.

In the 70's and early 80's, you'd only give someone an item made in Asia if you intended to insult them. Australia made it's own products. Then the influx of cheaper Asian made goods to coincide with the boom in consumer technology (radio-cassettes, video players, tv, computers and onwards). Nowadays I can't think of anything that isn't imported .. even vitamins are imported and foodstuffs. It's not that long ago that no-one but the most desperate or crazy would eat food imported from Asian nations. Now, Australian product is being ploughed into the ground because it can't compete with inferior overseas stuff.

Australia is described as 'the most monopolistic nation in the world'. Monopoly of the media by two groups. Monopoly in groceries by Woolies and Coles. And now they're thinking of scrapping State governments to be replaced by a Federal giant. Banks able to prevent competition from even being born. Monopoly even in the lucrative funeral home industry. Aussie manufacturers all outsourcing. Parents are even 'buying' jobs for their kids and vying for the chance to do so.

Don't beat yourself up. It's a situation not of your generation's making and no-one is offering you any light at the end of the tunnel. Only card you have to play is your vote. Meanwhile, Rudd is continuing the game passed to him by previous Prime Ministers, that of selling and privatising the last of what once made Australia the holders of 'best quality of life in the world' title.

Hope something turns up for you soon






[edit on 3-9-2009 by St Vaast]

Originally posted by Mindmelding
It's just full blown corporate greed meeting an educational system run by egotistical morons that don't care and aren't smart enough to do anything if they did. Educating people, over way too long a time I might add and at ridiculous cost, for a corporate world that basically is giving them the finger.

Your post totally reminds me of a book by William Whyte, The Organization Man.

As an editor for Fortune magazine, Whyte was well placed to observe corporate America; it became clear to him that the American belief in the perfectibility of society was shifting from one of individual initiative to one that could be achieved at the expense of the individual.

Basically he says that as corporations thrive, individuals suffer and that corporations effect everything from true innovation to suburbs to education as we structure our lives to best compete within the corporate setting.

Aldous Huxley also warned against over "organization" as an impediment to freedom.

It is what it is... Until the disenfranchised put bricks through corporate windows in the middle of the night, who would ever care to notice?

I have to agree with the thrust of the OP - if not all of the details - I know a lot young people for an old geezer mostly because my profession at one time was full time musician for many years and that as kept me in touch with the culture at a more direct level - then I joined the corporate world as an older worker and worked my way up to HR Generalist n a small silicon valley educational company - a company which grew with the boom times and was swallowed up during the crash - and I was laid off of course having risen to the highest position my education would allow and being the oldest worker in my department - my disability made no difference by the way - except to be another notch in the reasons the company could not afford me anymore [healthcare costs] -

I've seen the competitiveness for jobs first hand, and among high school students coming up as well - there simply isn't the money to go around that there used to be - especially with so many jobs being outsourced to other countries and factories built abroad instead of here in the US - we are no longer a producing nation at least not as we used to be...

I predict that young 18 to mid thirties[whom i have always found to be concerned, informed and the word used by an earlier poster "saturated"] will begin to band together in small community groups to live together, to make living away from home affordable if not ideal - and that from this will come a very interesting change in our culture - a different change from the sixties when we banded together in communes to express our Utopian dreams - this time it will be sheer survival and the drive to have some kind of decent life...will make for interesting times ahead -

Here's my advice to all the young people on here who can't find jobs:

Consider yourself lucky that you haven't yet fallen into the rotten trenches of corporate America (or corporate global) and get out and start your own company while you are young and idealistic and still have a lot of energy.

I myself graduated college in the early 90's, where there was a huge recession going on. My freshman year was '87, the year of a big stock market crash. I didn't know what I wanted to be when I grew up, and my parents pushed me to choose a career where I would have job "stability." Well, I did, but it's such a boring career, it made me nuts, and it still makes me nuts. It's the most boring career in the whole world, to be honest.

Do I have security? Yes. Is it worth it? No.

Instead of looking for a job....ask yourself...."Where do my PASSIONS lie?" Then, follow your passions. That's what I would suggest.

Don't fall into the rut of living for security (like I did) because it takes all the fun out of living.



[edit on 3-9-2009 by nikiano]

Maybe companies and the government should stop requiring a degree to blow your nose.

In my last job, you had to have a degree to do pool and rat inspections.

College is not accessible and affordable to everyone, and it creates a class society. Instead, lets go back to good ol' smarts and experience.

same as rest of you, educated and experienced, working at a call centre unable to find a job in the fields i am experienced in, worked to the bone, measured to the second, marriage, a house, a "real" job, unable to finish my university/further due to money (why even bother i guess?), ive lost a lot of years just slaving for some money to upgrade to the next step..

to the above poster, i think even a boring mundane job is better then suffering no job/no money/no hope, even those jobs arent available nowadays though

trying to get a part-time job was impossible, even during university for me, unless i wanted to flip burgers or sweep floors ???

all the markets, minerals, energies, technologies, goods are controlled, something tells me that even if me and a few buddies were to try to break away from society and live on our own, tanks and helicopters would come and force us back in to society.. or where would we go? a forest? all the land is owned.. lol

i remember a wealthy uncle telling me "just save some money every month its easy"..

not easy when you have $100 dollars after a pay cheque that is supposed to buy food/clothes/luxury/relationships (if you even have a job)

reply to post by nikiano



I think you're my son, LOL

By the same token, not everyone is cut out to pioneer a business or enterprise

There would undoubtedly be people who'd read your post and who'd say to the screen .. 'Ok then, give me your job. I'll take it, no matter how 'boring' you claim it is. I'll do anything to have a reason to get up every day -- to be one of the employed for a change -- to see money going IN to my bank account -- to be able to buy tickets to shows or games -- to be able to walk into a shop to buy something I need instead of walking past that shop and going to a charity shop instead -- to be able to flip out a card at a check-out instead of carefully counting my bit of money before even entering the store, etc.'

It also used to be that a person would work for a company for life. YOu would meet someone who worked there 40 years and retire.

Now, your lucky if the company doesn't can you first. They outsource your job, or drive you out.

Instead it is all McDonalds style. Just keep the people who don't need to make money coming in.

Forget about loyalty. Forget about loyalty from a company to its employees.

And then they wonder why kids are so disenfranchised.

reply to post by nixie_nox



Agree. But if the BS stopped about needing a degree to lay down rat-poison, as you say

then where would that very lucrative education INDUSTRY be ?

reply to post by realshanti


Very interesting my friend, very interesting indeed. In the event that you did not notice it, you have expressed the most significant reason that I have heard yet for a government option in health care... Compliance with the Americans With Disabilities Act.

If insurance companies are putting pressure on corporations to dismiss disabled or handicapped people as a result of the cost of health care - then an extreme violation of the act is happening.

** If this has happened to anybody you know message me - I will champion you to the ends of the Earth.

reply to post by nikiano


BRAVO nikiano - Thank God there are people like you to still tell the truth! Listen to this man young people... Better to set the world on fire than to waste your life making matches.
\

Originally posted by Naeem82
same as rest of you, educated and experienced, working at a call centre unable to find a job in the fields i am experienced in, worked to the bone, measured to the second, marriage, a house, a "real" job, unable to finish my university/further due to money (why even bother i guess?), ive lost a lot of years just slaving for some money to upgrade to the next step..

to the above poster, i think even a boring mundane job is better then suffering no job/no money/no hope, even those jobs arent available nowadays though

trying to get a part-time job was impossible, even during university for me, unless i wanted to flip burgers or sweep floors ???

all the markets, minerals, energies, technologies, goods are controlled, something tells me that even if me and a few buddies were to try to break away from society and live on our own, tanks and helicopters would come and force us back in to society.. or where would we go? a forest? all the land is owned.. lol

i remember a wealthy uncle telling me "just save some money every month its easy"..

not easy when you have $100 dollars after a pay cheque that is supposed to buy food/clothes/luxury/relationships (if you even have a job)

No - You're right. Your uncle never lived today. Houses don't cost 10K cars don't cost 2.5K and there isn't a job around every corner that a person could maintain a family on without regard to education.

www.joebageant.com...

Workers know only work and jobs, because they have been undereducated, misinformed, university indoctrinated and psychologically pistol whipped into submission. It is utterly ridiculous that any adult cannot figure out the obvious inequity of this nation and American capitalism, where an elite one percent of the people grab 45% of the national pie. Such a conditioned stupidity and powerlessness makes you want to cry for your country…

...The employing corporation pays the lowest wage possible to as few workers as it can get by with, even if it has to import a new underclass from abroad, which we do constantly. The "customer" wage slave now pays the corporation the absolute maximum that can be charged for virtually everything in the customer's life, even for the most vital necessities of life.

Technological advances = the ability to do more with less people.

Population growth = more poeple in the workforce.

The growth of 2nd Tier and 3rd Tier countries = job loss in 1st Tier countries.

Government growth/expansion, & over-regulation drains private capital.

And now, in the USA, we have an administration that's more interested in wealth-redistribution rather than economic growth. We're screwed.

This does not surprise me one bit.

Senior in high school.

After looking at all the people who just say **** it, it is quite obvious why these numbers are so high.

This high school is rated one of the best in the state too. So I can not even imagine a "worse" school.

I'm 22, live at home and have been struggling to earn enough money to start school. Yes, start school. After high school I attempted to attend a university, but was clearly not self disciplined enough to handle it, so withdrew shortly after starting, saving my parents the money they wold have lost had I continued and failed out. I spent the next 4 years "finding myself" as they say, working a variety of minimum wage jobs while living at home.

Well it's 4 years later, I'm in a serious relationship, want to move out and go back to school, start saving money for the future....too bad none of that will be happening anytime soon. I'll barely be able to afford two classes a semester at the local community college and there isnt a snowballs chance in hell my parents can help me pay since they're situation at this point isnt much better then mine.

I have friends with degrees who are living paycheck to paycheck, who have bachelors in fields that require masters, but they cant afford to be in debt any deeper, so they're in this limbo region of employment. Some are on their own, but many have had to go back home just so they can have the POSSIBILITY of saving money. Those with out educations, but with labor skills are spending weeks out of work, sitting by the phone waiting for that call from some job site, any job site.

I have no interest in this becoming a woe-is-me sob story, just pointing out the fact that it is very true and very frustrating/disheartining.

I agree with nearly everything that has been said so far. In my case, for instance, I have an engineering degree, but I can't find any work because all the companies want people with five, ten, twenty years experience, and you can't get in with zero years except with nepotism. Why? Because we're graduating too many engineers (and almost everything else) and most of them are completely incompetent, and on paper there is nothing to distinguish one from another, since they both have the same degree.

So yeah, I'm living in my parent's basement, and I can't find any work. My parents are understanding, but they (quite rightly) are pushing me to find something. Trouble is, I can't find anything. I suppose I fit the stereotype fairly closely, with the exception that I'd be out there working for an engineering company if I had the choice.

I'm not sure what the root cause is, and there probably isn't just one. One definite problem is what another poster called the 'education industry'. While I am all for education, I think there should be a way to distinguish the 'mommy and daddy paid my way so I could eff around for four years at university'-degrees from the 'I worked my arse off summers to pay for the schooling, and worked even harder to master what I was doing'-degrees. Marks will do so to a certain degree, but even there, because they mark on a grade curve, even mediocre students can walk around with As and Bs, because there were less stupid than the next guy, rather than having any smarts themselves.

Another problem is the recent tanking of the economy. It was tough before, but that certainly didn't help. That can be laid at the feet of a lot of the American financial institutions and banks. That isn't the cause of the 'lost decade', though, because the problem already existed in a slightly milder form.

What I do know is that the problem is real, and that I didn't choose to be in this position, and other than sheer luck beating out hundreds of other applicants, I don't really know what to do about it. (I realize some people want to sit in their parent's basement for the next twenty years, but that isn't me, so I won't get into that)

I'm not under 35 but I will weigh in here.
Everybody is experiencing this. The system has been exporting jobs, importing cheaper labor, devaluing the dollar and raising the cost of living and education. This has been constant and continuous for the last four decades. There are people with degrees and decades of experience who are lining up for checkout jobs at wal mart and entry level positions at cubicle farms in every city in the country.

The system is broken and most of our older citizens are not much better off than the 22 year old who is trying to scrape together money for school.

Just remember, if you are in your 20s or early 30's then you still have time to recover and possibly create something of your life. Most of the older folks are out of time and won't get the chance to recover.

We're all up the creek. Well, the bottom 75% or so.

Don't give up. At least you've still got time.
Good luck.



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