What causes unemployment?

[Ed Anger]

Young people suck.

[Ideologue]

Coulda been wrong on that--looking at SC specifically, our labor participation rate is 60%, but under 18/over 65 accounts for 37%.  Dunno how significant that 3% is, and may well be accounted for by people with disabling conditions, etc.

[HisMajestyBOB]

I have a degree from a decent state school, 3.49 GPA, Honors Program, 6 months studying abroad, internship experience, 2 years working as an English teacher abroad, and conversational skills in German and Korean. I've applied to government jobs, contractor jobs, admin assistant, secretarial, and landscaping jobs, and gotten none of them. Tell me what job I should apply for, since I apparently feel "entitled" to those jobs and don't deserve them. And I'm not alone in my position.

Stop whining!  Work harder!  THE SOD MUST FLOW.

And while I'm ranting and raving, I want to register my absolute disgust at the current Republican party. Their entire response to this mess has been to blame the victims (unemployed) and push only for tax cuts for the wealthiest and for corporations. Fuck them, and double-fuck Rep. Cantor, who tried to prevent FEMA disaster relief even for the counties in his district suffering from flooding.

[Ideologue]

I have a degree from a decent state school, 3.49 GPA, Honors Program, 6 months studying abroad, internship experience, 2 years working as an English teacher abroad, and conversational skills in German and Korean. I've applied to government jobs, contractor jobs, admin assistant, secretarial, and landscaping jobs, and gotten none of them. Tell me what job I should apply for, since I apparently feel "entitled" to those jobs and don't deserve them. And I'm not alone in my position.

Stop whining!  Work harder!  THE SOD MUST FLOW.

And while I'm ranting and raving, I want to register my absolute disgust at the current Republican party. Their entire response to this mess has been to blame the victims (unemployed) and push only for tax cuts for the wealthiest and for corporations. Fuck them, and double-fuck Rep. Cantor, who tried to prevent FEMA disaster relief even for the counties in his district suffering from flooding.

I was gonna post a joke that would ensure neither one of us ever got a security clearance, but I thought better of it.

[HisMajestyBOB]

I have a degree from a decent state school, 3.49 GPA, Honors Program, 6 months studying abroad, internship experience, 2 years working as an English teacher abroad, and conversational skills in German and Korean. I've applied to government jobs, contractor jobs, admin assistant, secretarial, and landscaping jobs, and gotten none of them. Tell me what job I should apply for, since I apparently feel "entitled" to those jobs and don't deserve them. And I'm not alone in my position.

Stop whining!  Work harder!  THE SOD MUST FLOW.

And while I'm ranting and raving, I want to register my absolute disgust at the current Republican party. Their entire response to this mess has been to blame the victims (unemployed) and push only for tax cuts for the wealthiest and for corporations. Fuck them, and double-fuck Rep. Cantor, who tried to prevent FEMA disaster relief even for the counties in his district suffering from flooding.

I was gonna post a joke that would ensure neither one of us ever got a security clearance, but I thought better of it.

Go for it. I sure as hell am never revealing my presence on this site to any employer, or most other people in general.

[Ed Anger]

Go for it. I sure as hell am never revealing my presence on this site to any employer, or most other people in general.

Smart lad.

[Ideologue]

Well, the souffle's gonna fall now, but it involved an invitation to join my organization, as a man who can speak Korean to our suppliers could come in handy.

[crazy canuck]

The answer is to go back ~30 years and get a job on that sod farm CC worked at during high school.

You joke but there are a lot of farm jobs out in the Fraser Valley that go unfilled... Why is that?

[Josquius]

I think the subset of youth that are entitled as you feel is much, much smaller than you think.
Furthermore, you say college grads should aim low and work their way up. Why should they start at McDonalds or another low-paying job when they've spent the time, money, and effort to be qualified for better jobs? Most college kids already work low-paying jobs while in school - they didn't study to go back to working those jobs. Worse, with the recession, entry-level jobs are few, and McDonalds and other low-wage jobs are more likely to higher those without a college degree, since college grads are going to leave as soon as they get a better offer. This leaves recent college grads unable to start a career because of lack of jobs (especially any where they're competing with more experienced people who were just laid off), and struggling to get even low-wage jobs.

Indeed, back home I couldn`t get any job.
The low level crap I could do in my sleep wanted someone who could expect no better and would stick around.
Graduate jobs...well those were thin on the ground.

Right now the primary causes of unemployment in America are Barack Hussein Obama and Harry Mason Reid.

Below: here are the party adjusted figures that the administration refuses to release.



Solution?

I like the way the upwards trend quite clearly starts with the other guy.

[crazy canuck]

Well, the actual value of a truly junior lawyer (say, a couple of years out) is generally going to be close to negligible.  One hires for the future.

Agreed, and the wage expectations ought to follow from those assumptions.

[Fate]

Well I think they have been going through life being told if they go down such and such assembly line everything will be great and then when they discover now they have to be creative and think for themselves it can be a shock.

Having said that I do feel for the people who were sold on getting a very specialized and expensive degree (like a Law degree) and then discovered there is actually very little demand for it.

If they were "sold" on it and didnt have the intelligence that their highly paid education assumes to look around to see its a competitive world out there they have no sympathy from me.  It has been a truism of law schools since at least the time I graduated that if you are not in the top X% - and we can quibble about what the X is - you are going to have a hard time of it.

I don't get why post-graduation jobs for law are so sparse. Why do law schools provide such an excess of seats if they know there isn't gainful employment for their classes? In medicine even the guy who is dead last in class rank is going to end up in a residency making on average 50 grand a year and after 4 years they'll be making on average 170 grand as a family medicine doc. 40% of US family medicine residencies every year go to foreigners because there aren't enough Americans to fill them.

Hey Ide, it's time to switch professions.

[garbon]

People with degrees from shitty institutions shouldn't feel entitled - they should feel embarrassed.

[Monoriu]

Demand only happens when people want and can pay for stuff.  Total demand is therefore limited.  We only need that much labour to produce that amount of stuff.  The rest is unemployment. 

[KRonn]

They should bring back the 65 mandatory retirement age. I was told that when I entered the job market it would be a prime time as all the boomers would be retiring. Damn old people not saving for their retirement

I've been saving! I plan to retire no later than 65! So some youngster can have my job!   

[HVC]

They should bring back the 65 mandatory retirement age. I was told that when I entered the job market it would be a prime time as all the boomers would be retiring. Damn old people not saving for their retirement

I've been saving! I plan to retire no later than 65! So some youngster can have my job!  

You're one of the good ones I can see CC keeping his job well into his 90's just to spite the young wiper snappers