Fewer Jobs
Of course, this is the most obvious reason. Jobs are indeed harder to come by in the current economic climate than they were 10 years ago. This is due to a number of factors. Besides the general economic malaise with its accompanying layoffs and lack of hiring, the nature of the American economy has shifted over the last 50 years, from a manufacturing-based economy to a financialized and monopolized economy, where the presence of large firms and their economies of scale means fewer employees are needed for the same amount of work. Technology, such as computers and robots, has also made some jobs redundant. For instance, significantly fewer workers are needed to make a car than were needed 50 years ago. I think that lots of these traditional jobs are gone and will never come back, and the recent economic depression only hastened that process.
Lack of Confidence
On an individual and personal level, being out of work, whether after graduation or a layoff, can be extremely damaging to someone's confidence. That lack of confidence can limit the goals one sets and the energy to pursue those goals. One can feel unmotivated and much less willing to take risks, especially when those risks involve spending money. Lack of confidence can also hurt performance in interviews. I think this is a self-reinforcing cycle until a major change helps to break the chain. This is certainly the case for myself. It's been nearly 3 years since I was laid off from a consulting job that I was fortunate to land after college. The hung-ho, confident outlook I had through college is only now starting to return now that I'm at BGI and surrounded by such an amazing community.
Misplaced expectations
On the flipside, the Echo Boom was one of the most privileged generations in the history of the world. We expected things to be easy for us - that college would put us into a stable, well-paying job with a comfortable retirement. We expected convenience and immediate gratification. Perhaps we even expected a hollywood life, because that's what we're bombarded with on TV. We expected an easy life. Perhaps we were too complacent. Perhaps growing up in comfort, we missed out on the do-it-yourself ethic that our great-grandparents knew. But this is changing. We've learned some hard lessons, and a new bottom-up economy is emerging in the vacuum.
Insufficient Education
Perhaps one of the problems is the degree itself. Or to be more specific, the content of the education. Maybe colleges aren't putting enough resources into preparing college graduates for a changing job market in which things are no longer neatly laid out for us. I was fortunate to have a career-oriented degree in which resumes, cover letters, team-building and conflict resolution were part of my coursework, but many students, particularly in the liberal arts, have no clue as to how to build a career outside of academia, due to no fault of their own.
These are just a few contributing factors in the underemployment of many college graduates, and I'm excited to explore more soon.
Great post, Chris! I often wonder about why traditional four year colleges are the norm for the majority of high school grads. In other countries, they tend to take a year or two off after graduating high school to "grow up"-- travel, work, study in other ways, apprentice. Looking back at my undergraduate education, I'm ashamed that I made my parents spend so much money for two years of a preppy private college education (my first college, which I transferred out of sophomore year) when the state school would have given me a perfectly excellent education and cost 3/4 less. I spent waayyy too much time in undergrad doing what we all do-- partying, learning how to be independent, slowly eeking my way towards adulthood. I could have done this over a year outside of school-- and might have gone into college with a fresh perspective, ready to choose a career path. As it was, I loved my art history major, and yet I think I may have chosen differently-- a more suitable, practical path, had I waited.
ReplyDeleteEmily, you make a great point, and I'd be interested in looking at the data on the jobs-degrees mismatch. For instance, I know that there are tons of jobs available in the maritime industry, but fewer and fewer young people wanting to work on a boat. On the other hand, 6 years ago liberal arts graduates didn't seem to have much of a problem finding a decent desk job for a medium to large company. How has the demand for certain skills changed? Is a general liberal arts degree insufficient nowadays, and should universities be focusing more on career-path education?
ReplyDeleteOn the other hand, how might that damage the intellectual heritage of our country if we were to take even more funding away from liberal arts? What if we had fewer philosophy, literature, and history students? Would we be taking away from our intellectual heritage? What might the negative impacts be? Just something to think about. There's certainly room between the two extremes, and of course plenty of space for places like BGI to try out entirely new education models.
Chris,
ReplyDeleteI appreciate how your have laid out things so clearly. I definitely can identify with a lot of your points, particularly with respect to lower job prospects and how college does not always prepare one well for future pursuits.
I am curious with one thing. It is well established that school cost has increased much faster than wages over the past 30 years, and students are graduating with more debt.
One thing I have also noticed is that people have to work more, while in college, just to make ends meet. I think that would make our generation is less entitled because more would be forced to work on top of their schooling.
Also, certain traditional rites of passage, like buying a house,getting married or even moving out of our parents basement are being deferred because the requisite economic resources are not there. Succinctly, there are not enough good jobs for young people so its hard to accomplish these things. So I guess I think that what looks like entitlement or "not growing up" is a reflection of diminished life goals because of fewer opportunities.
So I guess I don' t necessarily agree that we are more entitled, we just have Facebook.
Chris, more good stuff. One thing that has been happening to me as I have started to think about all this is that I've tried to de-couple my ideas about jobs, employment and well-being. Nobody ever liked working for The Man anyway and most Boomers would say they had a difficult finding and/or maintaining an appropriate work-life balance.
ReplyDeleteThese realizations, coupled with the dismal economic picture, are causing some young people to reconsider the traditional way in which we organize work and life in the US. I see some young people (those I meet through the staff and pages of YES! Magazine and those I meet in Indianola, where we rent a house to some young people) radically redefining how they spend their time. They exchange labor for rent, grow their own food, make their own beer, share their possessions, live in community, and make music and play on the internet for entertainment.
They don't own their own houses or have kids, but they seem to be enjoying life and making a contribution to the world -- just not in the way we've brought them up to think about it.
Jill, thanks for your comments! Very good point about alternative lifestyles! This has also been on my mind quite a bit. Internet-based moneymaking opportunities like Taskrabbit and airbnb, for instance, are the tip of the iceberg when it comes to a growing alternative economy, and I'm also aware of time banks, where you can do work for someone in exchange for time credits, which you can then spend on other services. I'd be really interested in starting something like this at BGI as a tester for something larger in my neighborhood. It would be a fantastic way to help grow community while making available valuable services to those with limited financial means.
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