Unemployment today doesn’t look like any unemployment in the recent American experience. We have the astonishing and dispiriting new reality that the “long-term jobless”””people out of work more than six months (27 weeks)””was about 44% of all people unemployed in February. A year ago that number was 24.6%.
This is not normal joblessness. As The Wall Street Journal reported in January, even when the recovery comes, some jobs will never return.
But the aspect of this mess I find more disturbing is the numbers around what economists call “youth unemployment.” The U.S. unemployment rate for workers under 25 years old is about 20%.
“Youth unemployment” isn’t just a descriptor used by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. It’s virtually an entire field of study in the economics profession. That’s because in Europe, “youth unemployment” has become part of the permanent landscape, something that somehow never goes away.
Where is christian compassion in this government? Youth employment is a key factor to building useful adults. Our government is failing.
As a christian, I hire as many young people as possible for short-term and/or teach them how to contract themselves out. I assume that our heavy-handed government will someday close this door, also, but I just got a “thank you” note from a such a young person’s father saying how much it helped his son and will help him in the Ivy League school he is planning on attending. (I did not recommend the school).
Our votes have consequences – Don
#1. Sorry, but the last thing we need is government involvement in “youth employment”. What is needed, in my opinion, is for the government to get out of the way so that free enterprise can take over and grow creating real employment for everyone.
Tgs:
Sorry, brevity makes assumptions. The key problem currently is the minimum wage law and the turning of a housing surplus into an international recession. Government is the problem – not the solution.
I totally agree with you – get government out of the way.
Don
It is difficult these days for many young people to find jobs that pay a living wage. As difficult as it is, it can be done. One of my children had to work two minimum wage part-time jobs for a while to pay the rent. She had to eat a lot of peanut butter and rice during that time. But, she survived and found a better job that she loves. One challenge young people just out of college face these days is the onerous burden of a large student loan. Something about that whole process reeks, but again, with perseverance a kid can survive. Another thing to consider is service to your country. My son went that route and it’s been a very positive experience for him overall, even taking into consideration the purple hearts.
Businesses should just create jobs. Christians should hire youth. Just do it!
What we should really do is eliminate safety and child labor laws. Get the government out of the way!
No John, what we should really do is give them all little red scarves and AK-47s and have them march through the countryside singing songs about the glorious revolution and rounding up all the counter revolutionaries and placing them in the learning camps.
Boy, that will show all those evil business owners!
For Heaven’s sake, there is no such word as “alright.” Larry