I don’t remember how I came upon Bianca Fortis’s blog, Young and Unemployed, but I was empathic enough to send her an email. Bianca is a relatively recent journalism graduate from the University of Central Florida who most likely had high hopes for easily pursuing her career once she completed her education. Like many, she just happened to have graduated during a period of high unemployment. She got the short end of the stick.
Bianca began chronicling her employment search back in May and has not yet been able to land a job as a reporter of sorts. She’s given up the independence she gained in college to move back home with her parents; it’s estimated that nearly 54 percent of college grads today are doing the same.
The short-term outcome looks rather bleak, especially in those states like Arizona, California, Nevada and Florida that are having a tough time rebounding from the recession. For places like Arizona, the AZ Department of Commerce estimates that it will take approximately seven years to get back to 2005 employment levels. (To put it in more perspective, in AZ the private sector added 700 jobs in September; the pre-recession average was 6,900.) For those of us with kids who will be entering the workforce then, you might want to delay converting their bedrooms into that second den or exercise room. Chances are they will be coming back home.
The long-term effects are even worse. If the young cannot get significant work experience until their early or mid-twenties, their entire careers are delayed. Experience is a critical factor in professional advancement.
We can prepare our kids for jobs all we want, but if those jobs aren’t there, they just aren’t there. Employment needs to be created.
As I went through Bianca’s blog entries I couldn’t help but think, “What if that happens to my own kid?” Would it be prudent of me to simply tell her to study hard and go to college because when she’s done, there will be a job waiting for her? It’s akin to telling her Santa brought all of her Christmas gifts – at some point we have to fess up that we lied.
I’m doing more for my kid. I’m instilling skill sets through entrepreneurship training that will give her options as an adult so that she doesn’t have to be financially dependent upon someone else. Besides, I don’t want her to be that adult child living in the basement because one day I’d like a craft room.
Success to you.
Melissa
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Great article, and so true. Jobs are hard to find, but you don’t want to discourage kids from furthering their education either. We walk a real tightrope with it. Kids need to think about more than just what they want to do, but also what kind of job market there is out there for that job. Keep it real.
@gayla, it is a tightrope and continual learning and skill set development should always be encouraged. I’m a big proponent of a college education, not because it’s a marketing tool for employment and career advancement, but because there’s an intrinsic benefit to personal development. We need to be realistic and come to the realization that what is going on with our economy now will likely happen again in our kid’s lifetime. Do we want them to sink or are we going to teach them how to swim?
Thanks for your comment – much appreciated!
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