Are young people a lost generation?

[Clevername]

Not everyone can be on a highschool sports team, and then be lucky enough to receive a 1/2 scholarship from it. That's just ridiculous to assume that if you don't get one you didn't "earn it".

Right about that but every student in school has the ability to earn an academic scholarship... Like I said before pointing out the flaws in the system will get you nowhere you will either learn to work around it or you won't. Not everyone is meant to succeed in life.

My generation came into a shittier job market than the generation before us and same before them... adapt.

[Deleted]

My grandparents grew up during the depression. They're pretty familiar with what it's like not being able to find someone who's hiring. My grandparents were lucky enough to have the post-war boom to help finance the building of their homes and businesses. My grandfather started his own company, instead of relying on someone else to provide him with a job opportunity. It took hard work, guts, and lots of time and effort to build up the business relationships with other companies to help support his own company. He had a large family, though not as large as his parents, and trying to keep his family housed, fed, and clothed while also keeping his company running was extremely stressful and time consuming.

My parents were both born in the 1950s.
My grandparents on my mother's side of the family are both in their late 70s, my paternal grandparents were born a little earlier but I don't remember exactly.
Thing is, post-WW2 the Swedish economy was in great shape and while there were of course periods when it wasn't doing quite as great the biggest blows to it have been in the 1990s and the 2000s.

Being able to afford your own house by 30 is an amazingly recent development, so I'm curious how old your grandparents are if they take jobs and homes for granted.

Define "amazingly recent", my grandparents all owned houses when they were that age, as did my parents. Now, were they well-to-do upper middle-class? Hardly, my paternal grandfather was a logger, paternal grandmother was a cashier, maternal grandmother was a stay-at-home mom and my maternal grandfather was a mechanic. When my parents bought their house my father was an electrician and mother worked in a book store.

As for it being easier to find a job 5 years ago than it is today - my husband was laid off 5 or 6 years ago now (the company was leaving the country, and he didn't want to move to Prague or Germany). He's been bouncing from one job to another. He landed his current position last spring, and it's a permanent position with decent pay. He has been unemployed for months at a time over the last few years, but he has kept in contact with recruiters and employment agencies for about 10 years now because he's familiar with what job finding takes.

It wasn't easier to find jobs 5 years ago than it is now, unless you were in an industry that was hiring like mad 5 years ago (my husband works in IT, it took 7-9 months to find a job after learning his entire building would be laid off).

I'm a software developer, I'm all too familiar with the dot-bomb and the fallout from this. I was in college when the whole thing hit, I had decided to not drop out and get a job during the boom. What happened? Those I knew who went straight from HS to jobs mostly kept on working or went back to school with money they had saved up, those of us without work experience couldn't find decent jobs (I worked 1st line outsourced tech support for a while, it's a horrible job with low pay, and it took me a couple of months to find even that one).

Also, keep in mind that unemployment, at least here in Sweden but certainly in a lot of other places as well, is quite high at the moment, record high when you look at those under 30, they're simply not finding jobs (and older folks of course dismiss this with the usual "today's kids are lazy").

A year and a half ago I learned that there were a number of opportunities for young professionals in North Dakota. Why North Dakota? Because most Americans would rather not live there. It's freaking cold. There isn't a whole lot out there. But the pay sounded pretty darn good, and without many outlets to spend that good pay, a smart young professional could save up a very nice nest egg for when they left ND to work in a location more to their liking. I don't know whether that's still the case, but it was a reminder that if you're willing to move, leave everything familiar and safe behind, there are opportunities out there for those brave enough to find and take them.

Every generation's lost til it figures out how to make it out there.

In Sweden you have to apply for jobs throughout the country and be willing to move to take a job anywhere in the country, otherwise they take away your unemployment benefits. Oh, and it doesn't matter if your significant other and kids can't move and the job offer is twelve hours away by car, if you don't move then you don't get money, simple as that.

[Schroedinger]

Pretty hard to find a job, when your dream career is a youtube vlog star or WoW arena player. My impression of these nee generation are that they are loud, lazy, ignorant and plain stupid. They have it too simple and too cozy in their lives and most of them cant handle simple tasks. No matter that the overall intelligence of people is higher, that the information sources are incredible useful. If you are too lazy to use the brain you have, you will accomplish nothing. And to describe today's youth: Stupid and proud.

[Keiran]

Right about that but every student in school has the ability to earn an academic scholarship... Like I said before pointing out the flaws in the system will get you nowhere you will either learn to work around it or you want. Not everyone is meant to succeed in life.

My generation came into a shittier job market than the generation before us and same before them... adapt.

Yeah, just "adapt", k! Academic scholarships? What about those in areas without those? What is true for your district (14 years ago) is NOT true for the entire countries. You agree that the job market gets shittier with time, but you can't seem to realize that it's so bad for younger people (NOT YOU, I'm talking about those who have graduated recently) that they can't simply "adapt". Maybe you should adapt to understanding the situations of other people, not just yourself.

[wilbbailey]

Its not that theres no jobs just that everyone in younger generations wants to start at the top. Of course noone will hire you everytime i do interviews kids come in looking like they just got out of bed with their pants falling off. They all want what the guys working here for 10+ years are making and dont want to get their hands dirty. I wonder what it will be like for them when Mom and Dad die and the cant sponge off them anymore. Or wait no i dont i see them buying food with access cards already.

[Gracin]

Hell I remember looking at degrees with my cousin in 2006 when we first enrolled in college. Every department I talked to from engineering to business all said the same thing. "Job market is great, near 100% placement with great starting salary." And they weren't lying every graduate or graduating senior had a job set in stone, two years later and we're really getting into it our friends that are seniors couldn't find jobs to save their lives and it hasn't gotten any better since.

[Clevername]

Yeah, just "adapt", k! Academic scholarships? What about those in areas without those? What is true for your district (14 years ago) is NOT true for the entire countries. You agree that the job market gets shittier with time, but you can't seem to realize that it's so bad for younger people (NOT YOU, I'm talking about those who have graduated recently) that they can't simply "adapt". Maybe you should adapt to understanding the situations of other people, not just yourself.

Obviously I can only speak to the US collegiate system so if you are from another country I can't relate but I know there are plenty of opportunities for scholarships, grants in the US and if you are a US citizen and unable to attain those than it is not lack of opportunity it is either lack of ability or lack of hard work on your part in either case... not everyone was meant to succeed. So what do you hope to accomplish by pleading your case that you are in a shitty situation?

[Keiran]

Obviously I can only speak to the US collegiate system so if you are from another country I can't relate but I know there are plenty of opportunities for scholarships, grants in the US and if you are a US citizen and unable to attain those than it is not lack of opportunity it is either lack of ability or lack of hard work on your part in either case... not everyone was meant to succeed. So what do you hope to accomplish by pleading your case that you are in a shitty situation?

I never mentioned my situation is shitty. Personally, I'm sort of lucky. My late grandmother paid for my college, but there's no teaching jobs. You shouldn't assume things, sir! I am from America, too. The valedictorian of my class received no scholarships because there were none. If she didn't put in effort, I don't know who did. There were only a few athletic scholarships and one for being black.

[Deleted]

its not only younger people though, there are many older people struggling to find jobs. it is hard for young people, cant say if its harder than previous generations or not. but right now there is very high unemployment in most places, and education fees are going right up, while the govt cuts funding for students.
it is very hard to find a job out there, especially for people with no experience already. when places hire, unless its a pretty good job they do not care about your qualifications at all, all they care about is that you have experience in that job so they dont have to train you, thats wahts making it so hard for young people to get jobs. and not everyone has the option of university because its so expensive.

[Deleted]

i think we are on the verge of the most prosperous era in a global sense the world have ever seen. These turbulent times is just a cleanup phase imo, ofc doomsday's are always more popular but as a human race, we should reduce the amount of people working with maintaining our society and increase the amount of people working with brining our race into greater discoveries which you cant put a price on. In a bigger perspective different eras are mostly known for their scientifical and philosophical breakthroughs. If we could sustain the population were an additional 20% dont need to work with assembling cars or rip ticket stubs at the movie then we have a huge capacity to actually achieve something. I doubt that if a alien race would visit us, they would probably had to come to a point where everything that mattered was their space program and the "cost" of such a program was irrelevant.

so if it feels rough to be a younger person today, i think knowledge is the only way to go. Nomatter in what field. we need to improve on all aspects of our society in order to progress. Farmers that utilize the most effective ways to produce is just as important as what google does or what apple does if not even more.

[Clevername]

I never mentioned my situation is shitty. Personally, I'm sort of lucky. My late grandmother paid for my college, but there's no teaching jobs. You shouldn't assume things, sir! I am from America, too. The valedictorian of my class received no scholarships because there were none. If she didn't put in effort, I don't know who did. There were only a few athletic scholarships and one for being black.

Might I inquire as to what your subject is for teaching because if it's elementary, history or social sciences... guess what those education jobs were hard to get when I came out of college. My ex wife got a teaching job immediately out of college in 2007; she was special education and had offers all over the state. You have opportunity in America right now, you can get a job... might not be what you want, in the major you chose but there are jobs.

You say there were no academic scholarships available to you the valedictorian... how many did you apply for?

The problem I find with much of the younger generation is they think the job market is supposed to cater to them that it should change it's needs based on theirs... I have not used my degree since the day I graduated college but I have been employed the entire time. I suggest you do less complaining about he job market and be thankful for the leg up you had on myself and many more out there.

[Deleted]

Maybe a lot of people are missing small things here. Electrics, fashion, etc, trends have shown people spend a lot more on these than previous. Cars are one of the few things that rapidly increased in price above inflation from the 60's til the late 80s (then settled), so I would assume (yes, im not stating a fact here without proof! shocking!) that this in part applies. I know my father for example had his first car at 17 for which he paid something in the region of about 30pounds...Im sure that probably equates to about 500 sterling now, and it wasn't the piece of crap I had for my first car which cost in essense 4x as much. he also never wasted a few hundred or equivalent a year on clothes, a PC, games, alcohol and ciggarettes were much lower priced due to tax, petrol was also much cheaper. This means more disposable income, more to save and therefore a house, younger.

It's not neccessarily any more expensive now, but it's certainly harder to get the savings (even as someone here with a house at 27, I still have 20k of student loan to pay off) than it was a long time ago. This doesnt mean its harder now or it was easier then. I do think it says something about how society treats perceived effort through. More willpower and more knowledge about how money works - which you are NEVER taught in school - and more people would be better off financially. There does seem to be a real "Spend until its gone" culture in youth these days.

[Reeve]

No. Everyone thinks they had it harder than their parents, and every older generation comes back with 'in my day'.

I'm not saying it is currently easy to find a job, but the market is cyclical and will come back to where it was before.

Even inf the market is cyclical, when you enter that market makes a big difference. If, when I join the market, there aren't many jobs and I have to start as a low end administrator, it will be MUCH harder for me to eventually become a top level manager than if I join the company in an up market as a junior manager. Timing counts.

[BLCalliente]

Here people +40 are actually complaining since the younger generation is cheaper, more flexible and have good schooling. Older people cannot find jobs.

Experience is completely overrated according to companies here. They even go as far as kicking out everybody at the moment they have to give them a full contract (in stead of temporarely) which is after 3 years. They can just get another person to fill the position. The need to be able to fire somebody fast is greater then to have experienced employees it seems.

I dunno where you are or what you do, but it sounds like a shit job for a shit company that requires no experience/training.

Maybe they kick them out because nobody should be doing an entry level job for three years?

---------- Post added 2012-02-16 at 09:16 AM ----------

I might point out by the way taht using a few handy little worth calculators over the years, I was able to determine that the 30k my parents bought their house for in 1991 would now cost you approx. 70-75k. Guess what the house is valued at? 72k.

Wages increase at roughly the same rate. I recall in 1991 or thereabouts being able to buy a paclet of fruit pastiles for 25p, and now they cost approx 65p. This is also in line with similar figures. Wages seem to have increased in roughly the same line, although this is in part thanks to minimum wage which essentially raises the average wage in line with history where it didn't previously exist. Bottom line? Life isn't harder, people seem lazier at least in my opinion.

Wages have been flat since the mid 60's.

[Bolson13]

I dunno where you are or what you do, but it sounds like a shit job for a shit company that requires no experience/training.

Maybe they kick them out because nobody should be doing an entry level job for three years?

Bachelor degree level in the Netherlands. Was in the news just this week. And no matter how you perform, they will do it. It is partly because the strickt rules on firing somebody once they have a full contract (for undetermined time as we say here).

[BLCalliente]

Might be so...however, I have anecdotal evedice where my grandfather worked regularely 48 hours (including every saturday 8 hrs) and my father lost his job and couldn't find a new one in 1985. Sooooooo...... There is no discussing that people have worked A LOT more in the past..probably up to the 1970s when unions got stronger and workweeks gradually phased down up to the 35 hrs week movement. Obviously when you are then asked to go back to a 40 hrs week it sounds harsh and is a setback - but it depends how far you are willing to look back in history.

Unions got stronger in the 70's? There were a ton of strikes, but the 70's was the first decade of unions losing power. Not sure where you got your information?

There was a 35 hour standard workweek? I'd like to know when this was!

People have a 40 hour workweek now? Salaried people pretty much are expected to work 45-55 hours.

---------- Post added 2012-02-16 at 09:25 AM ----------

Started college 1998 (1/2 athletic scholarship, 1/2 student loans)
Graduated college 2002 (40k in student loans accumulated over 4 years)
Student Loans paid off May 2010...
First Home purchased June 2011 with 20 percent down payment in cash.

You were saying?

I think he was saying you sound very self-righteous when promoting yourself as anecdotal evidence.

You might want to turn that down.

[Deleted]

I dunno where you are or what you do, but it sounds like a shit job for a shit company that requires no experience/training.

Maybe they kick them out because nobody should be doing an entry level job for three years?

---------- Post added 2012-02-16 at 09:16 AM ----------



Wages have been flat since the mid 60's.

Quite right, I meant increased in line with inflation == flat.

[BLCalliente]

Quite right, I meant increased in line with inflation == flat.

That's the problem. Real wages haven't increased with inflation at all.

[Clevername]

I think he was saying you sound very self-righteous when promoting yourself as anecdotal evidence.
You might want to turn that down.

I'm an arrogant prick I'll give you that but me being self-righteous is no worse than his claim that he will be forever in depth should (god forbid) he have to pay for college himself.

America is the land of opportunity not the land of guaranteed success.

[Emberpaw]

I think we should all be grateful this is not the great depression, i think then you may have something to whine about. kids these days are spoiled lazy little snots who have a sense of self entitlement that needs to beaten out of them. I think people today should learn how to grow and raise food organically and then they can use that to make some money. I buy from local farmers all the time. I do believe there is a huge future in it. Oh and all these jobs that are "beneath" them, our grandparents had a word for them they called them opportunities.