Where are the jobs?

[SocialistLez]

There's so much talk about young people being lazy, sponging off their parents,etc.

I'm 19 and I thank my lucky stars I have a job.
I have a crazy school schedule and it's hard to find a job that offers a schedule that can work w/ my school schedule or an employer willing to work around my schedule.

I have friends my same age who have applied for tons of jobs and very few ave been called back.

Anyone want to tell me where these jobs are we young people are supposed to have so we can stop sponging off our parents?

[Tunkamerica]

1. Oil rigs? J/K

I always worked at Subway or coffee shops in college... or on campus.

[Catshrink]

2. China, India, Indonesia, Vietnam

Mexico

[OhioChick]

8. Bingo. n/t

[elleng]

3. No good answers at the moment. Sorry.

[ithinkmyliverhurts]

4. My wife works at a place which advises young people . . .

how to stop sponging off of their parents.

But the crowd is a little on the old side--around the ages of 45-55 (there's a joke in there somewhere).

On a serious note: just bust your ass and make a buck with the sweat of your brow. I was unemployed for while, and I just offered my brute, sweaty work for anything. One summer, I walked/biked around neighborhoods and found people mowing their lawns. I offered them $5 to do what they were doing. Oh, man, I'd make a lot of money doing that. This one guy mowed a church's lawn for $50 a week. I told him I'd do it for $10. It only took me an hour and a half (he made $40; I made $10). Eventually I was making close to $120/day mowing lawns (not everyone felt right about giving me $5)--pure profit because I just used people's mowers and brooms.

Sometimes, I found, you just got to swallow your pride. It sucks, but it put food in my mouth and money in my bank.

[SocialistLez]

5. I'm willing. My dad did that when he was out of work. NT

[Hannah Bell]

9. the worst enemployment numbers for 16-24-yr-olds since 1947.

suggesting they go mow lawns is kind of unhelpful. there aren't that many lawns.

26% unemployment among those desiring work.


http://www.dailyfinance.com/story/careers/recession-youth-employment-plunges/19492422/

[ithinkmyliverhurts]

13. It was an example.

I also washed windows, cleaned dog shit, dug ditches. I once pulled weeds for 12 hours straight for $20. It was $20 and I needed it. I was desperate. My only point is is that there are levels of desperation. If she can still live with her parents then she has yet to experience desperate circumstances (not that she needs to). I wish there were good jobs in abundance. But there aren't. I made money because I needed money. I wasn't looking for career building or experience (though, ironically, those two+ years gave me invaluable experience and helped me tremendously). I needed food.

She asked a question, and I answered honestly. Where there are no jobs one has to improvise. I saved $20,000+ being homeless and mowing lawns, shoveling shit, hauling trash, collecting bottles, etc. It was degrading, but I did it. It's shitty work. I wouldn't wish it on anyone (though most of my "co-workers" happened to be immigrant/undocumented).

[Taitertots]

22. Oh, the fantasy that systemic unemployment is just the result of not working hard enough

Too bad now there are already 10 other people lined up to do all those things.

[roamer65]

6. Don't worry. We'll have a job for all of you very soon, per George Orwell.

It will be in World War III.

Orwell was right in his book "1984" about oligarchical collectivism. Too right.

[Coyote_Bandit]

7. Guess what?

The lack of available jobs reaches across the age spectrum.

There are lots of folks in their 40s and 50s and beyond who have credentials and experiences and references and networks who aren't faring any better in the job market than younger people.

Most of those lost jobs aren't coming back until the wealth circulating in the economy returns and there is no sign that's going to happen anytime soon.

The single most effective thing our government could do to stimulate economic growth and job creation is to capitalize small business creation and growth. After all, lots of those folks who can't find jobs are going to be forced to create their own source of income. But that won't happen. It's not corporate friendly. And we do have to finance two wars and the military industrial complex.

Good luck to you. Don't let the bastards get you down.

[Berry Cool]

20. It's not enough to capitalize small business.

Not all of us older folks who can't find a job have what it takes to go into business for ourselves. We need jobs working for someone else. We are not Swiss army knives. We are cutters or corkscrews or files or whatever, and we are better off in an organization in which we can do our specialty the best we possibly can, rather than being forced to do everything, PLUS pay for our own health insurance and retirement.

[Coyote_Bandit]

26. I too am one of those older workers

Long-term unemployed. Continually updating and expanding my skills. Willing to be flexible and consider income sources and work duties other than those in my past. More than willing to start my own little business in an effort to provide for myself - but unable to secure the capital to do so.

Not everyone has what it takes to go into business for themselves. And there are certainly lots of excuses to avoid doing so. Some aren't willing to work hard enough or long enough to succeed. Some are unwilling to take risks. They prefer to trade stability and security for the possible rewards. Some are afraid to lose what little they have. Some lack the creativity and flexibility to venture out of a structured, conventional, traditional, corporate environment. Some have only specialized skills and are unwilling to broaden their skill base in order to provide for themselves.

I'm fortunate. I was taught that life changes and that I should be flexible in entertaining the alternatives available to me. I love to learn and returned to school in my 30s and again in my 40s. That education includes training in a technical school and in a variety of trade skills. I never believed I was obligated to follow a traditional career path. I'm willing to entertain a wide range of possibilities to provide for myself. Nobody is obligated to give me a job or to provide for me. I value work in all its forms. I know that if I insist on being employed by someone else then I have to be able to offer skills and services they want. It doesn't work in reverse - they aren't going to create a job that accomodates me. No honest work is beneath me. I know that my life doesn't carry any guarantees or entitlements. In many ways it is what I make it. I prefer the self-respect that comes with creating my own opportunity and income to my present alternatives.

I'm a single, well educated 50ish woman with vision and hearing impairments. The majority of my professional life has been in a traditional business environment. However, I've also worked doing a host of other things. Lawn work and landscaping. Freelance graphic design. A wide variety of farm work including the broad range of responsibilities required to care for dairy cattle, beef cattle, and flocks of chickens producing hatchery eggs. I worked in a tool factory. I even spent a couple of months picking berries one summer. I've worked with hot, sharp dangerous items and caustic chemicals. Hard, dirty honest work that lots of Americans aren't willing to do.

The fact that you're concerned about your retirement and your health insurance suggests a couple of things to me. First, you have a retirement fund and health insurance which makes you more prosperous than tens of millions in this country. Second, it suggests that your decision not to even consider the possibility of self-employment is being driven by your fear of losing what you have.

When I learned to do jewelry work I learned that many of those standardized tools often worked better and filled a wider range of uses if modified just a little bit. For example, a small barrette file can have the teeth removed from its edges and be used effectively in setting stones. You may be afraid to choose to be anything more than a cutter or a corkscrew or a file. That doesn't mean that you lack the capability to become a Swiss army knife. Your choice is a reflection of your attitude. I respect your fear and your limitations. But they are yours and not mine.

If I had access to the capital required to do so then I'd create my own frickin job. You may not be up for that. However, given the inability of our economy to create jobs, such capital should be made available on a much larger scale to those of us who are willing to make that choice. When I'm successful I might hire you.

[Starry Messenger]

10. You're 19? Gosh I thought you were about 25 or 30!

I agree, there aren't a lot of jobs. I think the other article was talking about an entirely different class of people, the type who view unemployment as a type of vacation. I had one student come back to CA this summer from college and she can't even find work in fast food. She isn't viewing it as a vacation. :( It's pretty dire out here.

[ProgressiveVictory]

11. Not to sure...

My parents have a small cable company and i am employed through them.

[Rosa Luxemburg]

12. here

http://jobs.aol.com/articles/photos/top-10-companies-hiring-now/ Lowes too?

[OhioChick]

14. I never realized that you were so young...

Your posts/responses are pretty damn good for a 19 year old! :)

[SocialistLez]

18. Thanks. A lot of people think I'm older than I am.

:hi: I'll be 20 this Friday.

[OhioChick]

25. Happy Birthday!

:party:

[SocialistLez]

29. Gracias. NT

[FarLeftFist]

15. The Govt can't really "create" a demand for a product..

Unless its bombs.

[Hannah Bell]

17. but it can create jobs, both public & private ones. and actually, through policy

choices, it can create "demand" for products.

for example, one of the reasons we're taking more prescription meds than ever is government policy choices.

[SocialistLez]

19. Sure they can: solar panels, wind turbines, etc.

They could put solar panels on a lot of federal buildings and specify the solar panels are made in the USA.

When the cost of electric cars comes down, they can shift some of the federal fleet to electric and specify they be made in the USA.

[ellisonz]

16. I'm in the same boat. I graduated a year ago with a B.A. History

...from yes a private college, but with a substantial amount of grants and federal loans.

I applied for a couple dozen minimum wage jobs but got nothing until I lucked out and got a stimulus funded Americorps position with our state youth conservation corps. So now I'm living below the poverty level at home, still unable to pay all of my loans (PLUS loans are not subject to forbearance through public service), and working 40+ hours a week for the federal government. I would love to join the military but alas I my eardrums are no good.

I might get extremely lucky and slide into a paid research university position but even then I would not be able to pay all my loans, rent, food, gas etc. I could work 70-80 hours a week at minimum wage still not be able to make it here in Honolulu where my family and much of my extended family lives. I would go to the Mainland if I thought things would be any better there...

When the economy was good it was do well in school, work hard and we'll send you the best college possible...don't worry. Now it's all about money...

I say take away their Medicare and Social Security until the older generations pay this mammoth national debt we're going to be stuck with for decades. }(

[NNN0LHI]

21. By the time I was 19 I had a year seniority in a union auto plant making top money

Are your friends or the parents of those friends who can't find jobs driving imported and/or non-union made cars by any chance?

Don

[hayu_lol]

24. One teaching job opened up here in Klamath Falls OR...

there are 32 candidates, all with fresh new masters degrees applying.

I was downsized(not from teaching)a year and a half ago...need part time work to supplement my pension...no jobs available. I am 75.

[SocialistLez]

27. It's so hard to know these days which cars were made where.

I'm always trying to do research into certain cars I like to see if they are made in the U.S. or not.

[Echo In Light]

23. Blackwater, and/or similar mercenary outfits

[branders seine]

28. you think it's bad for 19 year olds,

you should try looking if you're over 50.