Youth unemployment is currently a major problem in the USA which affects millions of young people across the country. Unemployment means that young people’s life chances are severely damaged and it can be linked directly to things as anti-social behaviour crime. Many people seek to understand the causes behind youth unemployment, even going so far as to suggest that young people themselves are to blame as they do posses sufficient motivation to find work and to hold onto to jobs. This paper will explore the causes and consequences of youth unemployment, however it will do so from the position that these causes are almost exclusively outside of the control of young people themselves. It will begin by listing some of the consequences of youth unemployment on the people who suffer it and on society as a whole and will then go on to discuss possible solutions to the problem.
By referring to ‘youth’ this paper means anywhere between the ages of 16-24. Previously people of this age would have felt fortunate about the wide range of jobs which were available to them and the prospects which they had for a rewarding career. It is now the case that the majority of people this age will only posses jobs during the summer and that they these jobs themselves are held by a majority of people who are still completing high school and are in need of extra income in order to support their families.
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The situation in the country is even worse for people from ethnic minorities and for those who posses little or no higher education. Often in the case of these people then the best that they can hope for is a minimum wage job. This is categorically not the result of them being lazy or unwilling to work, but rather it is the result of the objective conditions which they face when they attempt to find work. It is also the case that, in the job market as it exists at the moment, people will judge an applicant based on their education and family background rather than their ability to do a job well. As long as attitude continues then it is likely that people from these demographics will find it harder and harder to find a job.
Not only does earning minimum wage mean that one has to work extremely long hours, but it also leads to situation in which people may become trapped in a cycle of poverty and find it very difficult to better themselves or ever move on to more education or a better paid job. Because minimum wage jobs require large amounts of hours in order to be able to earn enough to live, then those who do them are often exhausted and tired. This means that people often find it very difficult to improve their situation as they cannot then go on to do training or education. Therefore, even if people are able to find a precarious and low paid job then this is no guarantee that they will ever be able to find anything better. This can often lead to situations in which people move from temporary job to temporary job and do not have time to take any actions which would enable them to improve their life.
Unemployment has severe effects on working class and underprivileged youth. It has been linked directly to gang violence and drug dealing. Often the latter is the only way in which people in underprivileged areas may make money and it can often lead to a life of crime and a the high probability of young people spending time in prison, or even being killed as a result of the activity that they engage in.
However, youth unemployment is not merely something that affects the poorest people in society, rather it can be seen to be spreading other areas, especially young people who now hold degrees which, only a decade ago, would have been assumed to allow access to secure careers and well paid jobs. These young people also find themselves working minimum wage jobs, assuming that they can find work at all. The need to work these jobs is complemented by the large amount of debt which the majority of people carry with them when they finish college. Once again, these people are stuck working jobs which give barely more than what the need to survive and does give them any meaningful opportunity for advancement or for bettering themselves.
It is no longer the case that having a college degree can be considered to be guarantee of any kind of success or security. Rather, for each high paying or career ladder job, applicants now face up to 100 other applications and often find that, unless they have achieved the very highest standards possible at college then they are unable to access jobs which are of the level that they were expecting.
The country currently faces a situation in which the job market is saturated with graduates. This means that the value which is held by individual degrees has gone down and that this means that people with degrees face a situation in which they feel intensely devalued and in which they do not posses the means to pay off the debt which they have accumulated.
One possible solution to this situation would be to make sure that universities are able to teach students the very latest in degrees and that they make sure that they are able to learn the very best skills which are wanted by employers. It is vitally important to attract new jobs and this can only be done by attracting business and investment. Colleges have an obligation and a responsibility to make sure that they teach their students to the highest standards, but also that these students are able to work exceptionally well in the modern job market. If universities were to do this then it would mean that millions of jobs could be created as people would seek to come and invest in the U.S. job market. In a situation such as that faced by young people in the United States, then it must be emphasised that the creation of jobs is absolutely a priority and therefore it can be stated that the most important thing is to make sure that individuals are trained in such as a way as to make sure that jobs can be attracted.
In conclusion, this paper has shown that youth unemployment is a serious problem in America. It has shown that it affects both working class and middle class people, even college graduates. Finally, it has argued that in order to solve this problem new jobs must be created and that these jobs can be created if colleges specialise in training young people as well as possible.
- American Association of Community Colleges. “Where Value Meets Values: The Economic
Impact of Community Colleges (Executive Summary).” American Association of
Community Colleges. AACC, Feb. 2014. Web. 20 Oct. 2014 - Greenblatt, Alan “Youth Unemployment.” CQ Researcher 15 Mar. 2014: 241-64. Web. 1 Oct. 2014.
