Bleak And Bleaker
The unemployment rate dropped last month for men and women, blacks and whites, lifting hopes that the long dry spell in the jobs market may be coming to an end. But for recent college graduates and other young adults, the labor situation didn’t just remain dire — it got worse.
For 20- to 24-year-olds, the jobless rate rose four-tenths of a percent to 16% in November, even as unemployment nationally slipped to 10% from 10.2%.
And data from the Labor Department show that the unemployment figure for college graduates in that age group was 10.6% in the third quarter — the highest since early 1983 and more than double the rate for older college-educated workers.
It is actually worse than that lede makes it seem:
Last year, an average of 67% of students had full-time jobs within six months of graduation, according to reports from 557 four-year colleges. That was a decline from a placement rate of 75% for the class of 2007 and 77% the year before.
Edwin Koc, the association’s research director, said he’d had discussions with several dozen colleges in recent weeks, and some of them are seeing employment rates as low as 30% for those who graduated six or seven months ago.
This is going to impact the lives of these young graduates for a long time – possibly for their entire lives. In order to climb the economic ladder, you have to get your foot on the first rung. These kids are not getting that chance.
But they are going to be stuck with the tab for the insane spending of Obama and the Democrats.
Complete with less experience, fewer prospects and lower incomes. How’s that hope and change holding up? The irresponsible policies of Obama and the Democrats are destroying these young people. They will be the heirs of diminished expectations, lower standards of living and fewer opportunities.
I fear for my children. I really do.
Democrats, Economy, Obamantics | Gaius December 14, 2009
