YOUNG AMERICANS -- AND OUR FUTURE
Oct 13 '09
The Bottom Line The young Americans who will shape our future are in particularly poor economic straits.
These are exceptionally painful economic times for the young Americans who
will shape our future.
Recent academic and labor studies show , as AFL-CIO President Richard
Trumka notes, that “young workers across the board are struggling to keep
their heads above water and not succeeding. They’ve put off adulthood – put
off having kids, put off education.” Consider these findings:
* More than one-third of workers under 35 are still living with their
parents because they can’t afford to live on their own, and only about
one-third of those who do live outside their parent’s home make enough money
to set aside some savings after paying their bills. More than 20 percent are
unable to pay their bills on a regular basis.
*Another third of the young workers have no health insurance, 80 percent of
them because they can’t afford it or because their employer doesn’t offer
it. More than one-third have had to put off the professional development
courses and other education needed to improve their employment status.
*Two-thirds of those who have managed to earn bachelor’s degrees come out of
college owing more than $20,000 in student loans, while one-fourth of the
students who enter college are forced to leave in their freshman year
because of debt.
The heaviest burdens are born by law school graduates, whose debts amount to
more than $75,000, and medical school graduates, who typically owe twice
that amount. Paying off those student debts is especially difficult, even if
the debtor has a job, because of the low, stagnant wages that are common
throughout today’s economy.
Unemployment has hit the young particularly hard. The latest surveys show a
jobless rate of 18 percent among younger workers … twice the general rate
and about two million more than were jobless just a year ago. It’s been
especially bad for young African-Americans. Twenty-seven percent of them are
looking for work.
It’s no wonder, then, that nearly one of every five Americans aged 18 to 24
are living below the official poverty line.
The studies were undertaken in part to compare the economic situation of
today’s young Americans with that of young Americans in 1999, when similar
studies were done. The young of a decade ago were also in relatively poor
shape, but not nearly to the extent of today’s young. By any measurement
today’s young workers are in much worse condition.
The AFL-CIO declared that “the deterioration of young workers’ economic
situation in those ten years is alarming.” As the studies pointed out, many
more can’t afford to leave home, more lack savings and are unable to pay
their bills on time. More lack health insurance, have even higher student
loans to pay off, and in many cases simply don’t have enough money to start
college or to enroll in training programs that would fit them for better
paying jobs, More are unemployed and living below the poverty line on wages
that rarely go up, but often go down.
George Miller, the California Democrat who heads the House Labor and
Education Committee, warns that unless young Americans are able to improve
their economic status, our overall economic situation also will experience
an alarming deterioration far worse than even in today’s time of general
economic distress. Fewer younger workers holding decently paid jobs will
mean even fewer dollars pumped into the economy and a decrease in production
of the goods and services that keep the economy healthy.
As former AFL-CIO President John Sweeney said, “Young workers must be given
the tools to lead the next generation to prosperity.”
Sweeney’s successor, Richard Trumka, has made equipping the young with the
vital tool of unionization a top priority. Currently, only about 25 percent
of union members are aged 18 to35, but the labor federation hopes to
increase that substantially through recruitment drives for young workers led
by some 1,000 current young members who are being trained for the task.
The AFL-CIO’s chances seem good. The majority of young workers in the
studies believed that workers are much more successful in getting workplace
problems solved as part of a group rather than as individuals. They also
believed that unionized workers fare much better then non-union workers who
hold similar jobs,
Several expert witnesses appearing before the House Labor and Education
Committee recently had other recommendations for easing the young workers’
plight and its consequences for the rest of us.
They suggested giving students more information on finding jobs that don’t
require a college degree and helping those who do chose college to find one
that best suits their economic needs. They said, too, that job training
programs should be closely connected to the specific needs of the current
and future labor market.
The witnesses also would expand or establish new paid internship and
community service programs, and increase student enrollment in community
colleges, which are valuable providers of vocational education, with a
special emphasis on training for the faster growing sectors of the economy
such as health care.
A large order, but it’s our future that’s at stake.
Copyright 2009 Dick Meister
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