NATIONAL
the
generation By Katie McCray, Staff Writer
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I’m constantly worried that I won’t be able to find a job and support myself. I never planned on moving back in with my parents, but I feel like I might have to,” says Berkeley senior Nicole Xu, aptly echoing the sentiment felt by many other students her age as she describles her post-college plans. The economic downturn in the United States has hit the youth (people aged 15-25) workforce harder than any other. According to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, the youth unemployment rate in the United States is 18.1%, almost two times higher than the national unemployment average of 9.1%. Young people are generally less educated and experienced, and are often the first to be laid off when the economic climate encourages employers to cut corners. Though youth unemployment seems easy to ignore, losing the early years of one’s career has serious long-term consequences. Youth unemployment is an issue that the United States must face upfront and take steps to prevent. Youth who are out of school face many consequences of unemployment that threaten to plague them for the rest of their career. The Economist succinctly describes the phenomenon as a “wage scar” in its article “Left Behind,” stating, “Take two men with the same education, literacy and numeracy scores, places of residence, parents’ education and IQ. If one of them spends a year unemployed before the age of 23, ten years later he can expect to earn 23% less than the other.” This takes a significant toll on those who struggle to keep up with their peers. This downturn has created what journalists are calling a “boomerang” generation of young adults who leave home for college, but are forced to return because they cannot find steady employment needed to live on their
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own. According to the Pew Research Center, the number of people living in multigenerational households grew by 2.6 million between 2007 and 2008. This has had troubling effects on the attitudes of young workers. The feelings of failure due to unemployment have been linked to higher risk of heart attacks later in life, lower life expectancy, and higher rates of suicide. The first step to solving joblessness among our country’s youth is adequate preparation for employment from an early age. Programs such as the Career Academy Support Network ( C A S N ) , based out of UC Berkeley’s Graduate School of Education, create learning communities and career academies in high schools that focus on preparing students for college and beyond. According to David Stern, Berkeley professor and principal investigator for CASN, “one of our main activities is to work directly with teachers, administrators, and local employers in strategically chosen sites around the country.” CASN has also been modeled to adapt and change in order to best serve its students. According to Stern, “We plan to incorporate data analysis into an ongoing process of self-improvement for the career academies… One of the ultimate goals is to contribute to the continuing improvement of the academy model itself.” Germany is one of the only countries that has been able to boast lowered youth unemployment rates in recent years, largely due to its unique
apprenticeship system that employs two-thirds of German high-schoolers and is utilized by 25% of employers. Apprenticeships offer part-time salaries (a cost shared by the company and the government) for students in vocational schools to spend about three days a week working as an apprentice for two to four years, frequently resulting in job offers. Though this model has worked well for Germany, it must be adapted to the cultural and economic climate of the United States. President Clinton’s “school to work” initiative, which was based on the German apprenticeship model, was cut down as a secondrate education. Rather than simply filling jobs, more focus should be put into creating them. Entrepreneurship may be an underSource: zunia.org exploited means of reducing youth unemployment. In 2008, the University of Miami began “Launch Pad,” a program dedicated to sending the message that starting your own company is a viable career option. Stephen A. Schwarzman, the billionaire head of private equity firm Blackstone Group, was intrigued and inspired by the notion and began a similar program at the Wayne State University and Walsh College in Michigan. He plans to expand to five more cities, promising $50 million over the next five years. With the right programs and a unified push toward solving youth unemployment, future students will anticipate graduation with excitement, rather than anxiety. •