The events in Egypt and “Blizzard 2011” have dominated the news. For most of us, the ‘snow day’ has been a nuisance. But for unemployed Millennials, everyday is a snow day.
What’s more, the events in Egypt and Tunisia are making it clear young adult unemployment can have major consequences for society.
A Generation is a Terrible Thing to Waste
I highly recommend checking out Business Week’s cover story, “The Youth Unemployment Bomb“. The article points out that what we call ‘boomerang kids’ are not just a U.S. concern, but a worldwide problem that could have long-term implications if not addressed:
“In Tunisia, the young people who helped bring down a dictator are called hittistes—French-Arabic slang for those who lean against the wall. Their counterparts in Egypt, who on Feb. 1 forced President Hosni Mubarak to say he won’t seek reelection, are the shabab atileen, unemployed youths. The hittistes and shabab have brothers and sisters across the globe. In Britain, they are NEETs—”not in education, employment, or training.” In Japan, they are freeters: an amalgam of the English word freelance and the German word Arbeiter, or worker. Spaniards call them mileuristas, meaning they earn no more than 1,000 euros a month. In the U.S., they’re “boomerang” kids who move back home after college because they can’t find work. Even fast-growing China, where labor shortages are more common than surpluses, has its “ant tribe“—recent college graduates who crowd together in cheap flats on the fringes of big cities because they can’t find well-paying work.
In each of these nations, an economy that can’t generate enough jobs to absorb its young people has created a lost generation of the disaffected, unemployed, or underemployed—including growing numbers of recent college graduates for whom the post-crash economy has little to offer.
The article goes on to describe the “quiet desperation of a generation in “waithood,” suspended short of fully employed adulthood“. It challenges us to consider the consequences of failing to help young people find a place in society. Can we afford NOT to “harness the energy, intelligence, and enthusiasm of the next generation?”
Adulthood Delayed
Two recent books have both explored the difficulties of ’emerging adults’ in the U.S. Both are based on extensive academic longitudinal research among what are now called Millennials. And both reach the same conclusion: Making the transition to adulthood has never been so challenging. What’s more, young adults who lack adequate guidance and support are increasingly losing their way along the path. Contributing factors include high job expectations, the high price of education, the Recession and a slowly dawning realization that the traditional ‘college prep’ approach is no longer a sure ticket to middle class prosperity.
“Not Quite Adults: Why 20-Something Are Choosing a Slower path to Adulthood, and Why It’s good for Everyone” by Richard Setterson and Barbara E. Ray
The authors draw on a variety of sources (many of the same ones I draw on for this blog) to describe a generation that is ‘lost without a compass’. “Given the importance of higher education tody to earning a living wage with benefits, it is surpresing how unprepared many young people are for college and how unformed their plans really are.” The authorsclaim many enroll because they don’t know what else to do. Others who should enroll don’t because they fear debt. The authors are especially concerned for what they dub ‘the treaders’ (as opposed to the ‘swimmers’). The final chapter urges the realization that we are all ‘responsible for the welfare of young people’, but there is a special burden on parents. While the dangers of hyper parenting are real, the dangers of leaving young adults on their own too soon is greater.
“Souls in Transition: The Religious & Spiritual Lies of Emerging Adults” by Christian Smith & Patricia Snell
This book is about much more than religion and spirituality, it encompasses the entire scope and culture of young adulthood. The book is based on research on the same set of young adults that began when they were 13-17 years old nearly 10 years ago. The authors conclude that the experience of young adulthood is changing rapidly. The fundamental driving goal is getting to the point where they can ‘stand on their own two feet’, but many are learning it is even harder than they expected. Many are overwhelmed with all of the skills, tasks, responsibilities, systems and procedures they must learn. Most feel ‘broke’, and live paycheck to paycheck whether they ‘objectively actually are out of money or not’. Money is a constant source of anxiety.
Getting on With It
As these books illustrate, we know what the problem is, but what are the solutions? A few prescriptions seem to be emerging:
1. Greater emphasis on career training, mentoring and vocational ed.
2. Incentives for older adults to retire or step back to create opportunities for young adults.
3. Greater understanding that a slow start is not ‘failure to launch’.
4. Greater voice for young adults in the civic process.
5. More alternatives like gap years, stipends for public service and other ways to put non-productive time to good use (without going into deeper debt).
Yet more seems to be called for. As the Business Week article suggests, youth unemployment, leading to estrangement between generations, may be the ‘epidemic’ of our age.
“In short, the fissure between young and old is deepening. “The older generations have eaten the future of the younger ones,” former Italian Prime Minister Giuliano Amato told Corriere della Sera. In Britain, Employment Minister Chris Grayling has called chronic unemployment a “ticking time bomb.” Jeffrey A. Joerres, chief executive officer of Manpower (MAN), a temporary-services firm with offices in 82 countries and territories, adds, “Youth unemployment will clearly be the epidemic of this next decade unless we get on it right away. You can’t throw in the towel on this.”
