Youth and adult working class compete for jobs in marginalized labor market

April 20, 1:38 PMDC Youth Issues ExaminerAisha Ali

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This economic recession has not only affected working class adults, but also the youth working class. According to the United Nations World Youth report, youths make up 25 percent of the working class. The International Labour Organization (ILO) reports 160 million people as globally unemployed during this recession, and nearly half of the percentage, 40 percent, is comprised of the youth working class.

In 2007, more than 1.2 billion youths around the world belonged to the working class. However, since the economic recession, youths between ages 15-24, fall within the group of one billion youths currently unemployed around the world. Eighty-five percent of unemployed youths reside in developing countries.

Since this recession, the youth unemployment rate has gotten progressively worse, as there is a limited amount of jobs for recent college graduates. Sadly, many recent graduates will join the countless other unemployed youths. Youths least experienced, productive, and last hired will be the first to receive pink slips. The end result: youths are very much so in the line of fire when concerning terminations and unemployment.

Prestigious jobs previously offered to young workers, have gone to older men and women over the past few years. Until the recent recession, these men and women have been quite successful at maintaining jobs, which has narrowed the labor market for the youth working class, tremendously.

When concerning unemployment, youths are two to three times more likely than adults to be unemployed. Unemployment is especially critical for young women, as this group suffers a higher rate of unemployment than young men in the majority of economies.

According to ILO, youths in both industrialized and developing countries are more likely to work long, tedious hours on short-term contracts, which have low-pay and limited or no social protection. In fact, according to the ILO report, most of the world’s youth working class possesses jobs that are of an informal economy.

In an informal economy, workers usually work long hours, receive low pay, and experience poor working conditions with no social protection, benefits, and freedom for associations, organizations, or unions that have collective bargaining power. In Latin America, almost all newly created jobs for the youth working class are of the informal economy, while 93 percent of all new jobs for the youth working class in Africa are within the informal economy, as well.

Although not as visible, more youths are becoming victims to the U.S. informal economy, especially with the increasing numbers of migrant or immigrant workers. Additionally, many youths are taking jobs within the U.S. formal economy that mirror many positions within the informal economy: contractual positions with limited or no rights, pay, and/or benefits.

A closer look into youth unemployment in the U.S.

Recently, I performed a poll consisting of 30 individuals. I asked these 30 individuals, between the age range of 25-45, if they believed adults or youths to have experienced a higher unemployment rate during this recession. While a few answered youths, a huge fraction of this group echoed a response of adults experiencing a higher unemployment rate.

When informing these individuals of being incorrect, many were shocked to hear the youth employment rate has suffered more during this recession. Many of the adults polled, between ages 35-40, argued employers would prefer hiring youths, especially during strained economic times, because youths can be trained more easily, as they are more receptive and knowledgeable concerning modern technology.

This same adult group, along with a few youths, also argued due to less experience, youths would be less likely than experienced adults with tenure to demand high-paying salaries; therefore, companies can pay youths lower wages or salaries than a 40-year old adult, for example. Yet, ironically, these arguments actually explain why many employers fail to hire youths.

In fact, youth unemployment has been a problem in the US, as well as the UK, and other countries for the past few years, even when economies were in better shape. To employers, many young people do not posses skills, tenure, or experience, for which they are looking. Furthermore, due to an extended career or job future that lies ahead when compared to older men and women, many employers fear youths will lack the commitment, work ethic, and personality needed to attend work every day and deal with supervisors, co-workers, and clients to successfully perform their job duties. Hence, according to many employers, they neither want to “waste” time nor money investing in a “fickle” employee who may or may last longer than six months.

However, college-educated youths experience a double-edged sword when seeking jobs. Not only do they face the same position as their less-educated peers, who are seen as fickle, career- or job-changing youngsters, lacking commitment, work ethics, and tenure but also, they are often rejected because college-educated youths expect higher-paying salaries or wages as some older men and women with tenure. Yet, many college-educated youths have been led astray in believing their college degrees from prestigious institutions qualify as experience, as to some employers, a college degree does not qualify as “in-depth” experience. As a result, many college-educated youths are often told they are "under-qualified" as their less-educated peers. Yet, in the same breath, college-educated youths also hear they are "over-qualified" for positions-- some of them even being the same type for which they had interviewed with another company that labeled them as "under-qualified". Caught up in the limbo of being either under- or over-qualified, college-educated youths often face the same fate as their less-educated peers: unemployment.

Since the labor market has become marginalized, college-educated youths are often employed in occupations or job positions that neither require education beyond high school nor prepare them with needed experience or skills for intended careers, for which they had anticipated upon graduation. This creates a situation where youths and adults not only compete within this narrow labor market for jobs, but also college- and less-educated youths, as college-educated youths have often displaced their less-educated peers in positions previously designated for those youths who never sought an education of higher learning.  Furthermore, the growing fraction of college-educated youths who are mal-employed will lag behind college-educated peers who were fortunate enough to both find and maintain jobs in their intended career fields.

According to Andrew Sum, director of the Center for Labor Market Studies, there has been a huge “age reversal” regarding jobs for people under 30 over the past eight years. From youth employment statistics, Sum argues the younger an individual is, the more he or she gets pushed out the labor market.

Since the amount of jobs were limited prior to this recession, poorly-educated youths were suffering greatly, already. Now, the pool of suffering is rapidly expanding as college-educated youths have begun to feel the crunch, as well.

This has portentous long-term implications for not only the U.S. economy, but also all other economies suffering from a recession. The economy cannot perform well with such a huge fraction of the youth working class condemned to marginalization.

Young men and women who remain unemployed for substantial periods of time will lose the experience and training they would have gained through working. There is a large number of the youth working class that has been affected by unemployment. Over a length of time, the attitudes and self-esteem of these youths will change if not provided with permanent, full-time employment. Even if they eventually find employment, they will lag behind peers when concerning wages, promotions and most importantly, job security.

Although highly visible now, unemployment has been a lingering ill festering in the U.S. for decades. As long as leeches and ticks continue to feast off greed and deception, the U.S., or any other economy, will never have a healthy, fully-recovered economy without constant relapses. Only time will tell to see if President Obama will aggressively create a cure-all or at least begin the foundation for one. However, with each passing month and unemployed victim, the public will eventually see just how brutal this recession will become.

For more info: Contact Aisha Ali at phenomenals@live.com. To read more of Aisha Ali's work visit: www.empowernewsmag.com.