Youth Unemployment

[caleb]

Of course those offers are probably at places like the University of middle-of-nowhere-land.

I think geographic immobility is one of the huge causes of academic unemployment, and it's rarely discussed. I've never known anyone with a legitimate PhD in any field who was willing to move anywhere in the country or world and still didn't manage to find a permanent position as a working academic within three years.

There are lots and lots of regional universities in the midwest and south where people get permanent teaching appointments with nothing more than an MA, MS, or MFA. Are they prestigious jobs? No. Is the teaching load high? Yes, think 4/4 or 5/5. Is the salary much more than you'd make as a high school teacher? Nope, maybe less. What percentage of the students will be first generation? Most. Is there a major airport or even a Starbucks in town? Maybe not. But are they stable jobs doing academic work? Absolutely.

The other day I saw a job in my field at whatever university is in Fort Hays, Kansas. I think it's somewhere out around where joosttx drank the Climato. If some unemployed Rutgers PhD wants to sit out on the coast and keep putting his CV in the same pool as all the HPY PhDs instead of applying in Fort Hays that's fine, but at that point he's bringing his employment situation on himself. To me, that choice not to move transforms a structural problem into a nose-too-far-in-the-air problem, and I don't have much sympathy for snobbery.

Certainly there's a numerical oversupply of PhDs in some fields, but I'm not really convinced there isn't permanent work for those who want it badly enough to pack a UHaul and learn to be happy wherever they need to unload it.

[lukasz]

I hear what you're saying but out of that originally mentioned pool of 281 I'd wager that most are in the flyover states. Not that I'm disparaging places in the middle of nowhere, either. I bet the riding is fantastic.

[Christian Fox]

I am afraid I am going to have to call you out absolutely on this. Not true. Hard work regularly kills, maims and disables people. I've know at least two people personally who have committed suicide from working too hard at law firms in London. One was particularly brutal and public as the guy threw himself down the stairs at the Tate London.

Japan even has a work for it...: karoshi, “death by overwork”. If you want to feel hollow inside at the half up: half down effects of industrialisation read this about Ssangyong in Korea and the treatment of workers there.

This whole "my generation worked the young doesn't" is absolute tosh and demeaning to the difficulties the young face. We are in a present where the economic system is tiered to corporations and McJobs are the future. However, this is not even a few hours at the local McDonalds kind of job the older generation may have been used to. It is computer optimised irregular shifts of 3 hours on semi-permanent status to ensure that no permanent benefits are given. Or it is working with electronic tags like criminals in Amazon warehouses.

Read this and really ask yourself whether this is a future you want for your relatives, friends, kids, or, really anyone? It is soulless and beneath what we should accept as a society.

Simply saying that you can get a job with hard work is a panacea which just hides the problem. Could black people prior to the 1964 Act get a job if they worked hard enough? Can women at work succeed if they work hard enough without equality legislation? No.

With the younger generation saddled by debt, in a country where resources are now expensive and the paths of opportunity narrowed, work alone is simply not enough. They need help and understanding and we don't give it we will all fall behind.

Heh?? a London barrister is some kind of indentured servant? Anyone who let's their job drive them to suicide has serious problems, their job being somewhat down on the list.

[Human Epic Jolt]

Anyone who let's their job drive them to suicide has serious problems, their job being somewhat down on the list.

what about hosing down trains that people jump in front of? that's a job.

[Veloraptor]

Very well said. Keynes said many things which were extremely prescient. A 30 year systematic program of corporate outsourcing of quality jobs, combined with a growing population, combined wih massive increases in worker productivity from technology, combined with an aging workforce whichbefore retirement has created a severe shortage in the pool of quality jobs available in this nation, as well as other nations. Corporate profits remain at record levels despite the pain felt by much of the labor pool. That type of imbalance is not simply overcome by "hard work". Thats's an extremely naive and childish level way to look at it. We have done this to ourselves, and our politicians have certainly implemented laws when their strings were pulled by corporate america to accelerate the damage. A perfect example were the tax loopholes passed by congress which permit corporatons to shield much if not all of their foreign earned income from US taxation. This was passed under the guise that it was " business friendly" tax policy. Yeah, it was extremely business friendly, and extremely US worker unfriendly. It essentially made it more profitable for US firms such as Intel to build new fab plants in Ireland, rather than america and then essentially evade paying US taxes on profits generated from that foreign operation. Just one of thousands of such examples.

[sonny]

stock market is doin great yall

[Veloraptor]

Exactly! Hit the proverbial nail on thy head. An argument that our government is anti corporate america is laughable, utterly laughable. In the past few decades more business friendly sweetheart laws have been penned into law by our so called anti business government than any time in our prior history of capitalism. All sorts of sweetheart deals from foreign income tax loopholes, to a multitude of business industry subsidies, to tax credits, to artificial Big pharma price floors, to property tax avoidance schemes, to deregulation, to silly illogical ceilings put on specific tax rates for certain businesses, etc... Sure we have more regs than say China, and for good reason. Unless, one thinks it is a good long term solution to have little to no environmental rules, or worker protection rules, etc. Ohh, yeah, we tried that in the past. Worked out real well too???? Take a trip over to China and visit one of the many dumpsites they operate that are filled with our USA generated toxic PC waste. Take a good look at the people working those places. Take a good look at their incidence of cancer and a host of other insidious diseases. That stuff occurs there specifically because of a lack of regulation. Thanks, but no thanks. Again, US corporations in most industries are making record profits. And much of that is because they have moved vast quantities of their labor overseas and our government has permitted it, even encouraged it because their corporate string pullers demanded it. Go plot a 30 year graph of worker productivity versus average worker wages adjusted for inflation and tell me what you see? The answer is right there in front of you!

[Veloraptor]

The stock market should be doing great. It is logical because corporate profits are at or near alltime highs in many industries, and corporate profits drive the indexes. The mistake is assuming that corporate profits in this new econmic paradigm translate into a healthy US labor force.

[Bruce Day]

Caleb:
Ft Hays State in Kansas is a school with forward thinking administration trying to grow. The community is nice, living is easy. There is a strong bicycling community.

Others:
Out here in fly over country, we have always noticed a tendency for east and west coasters to look down on those who do not choose to live where they live. Yet, much of this area was untouched by the recession, jobs have remained strong, low crime, good schools, and strong communities. Cities from Texas to North Dakota advertise for workers of many types. Some smaller cities try to spur growth by offering free lots to new residents. A decent and livable house still can be had for well under $200,000. A person can buy an acreage inexpensively. People still leave their houses and cars unlocked.

Some years back I had invited a fellow from the east to come pheasant hunting with us. Its world class hunting for wild birds, its free, and uncrowded. We hunted a friend's land, he is a significant business owner, she the recently retired director/coordinator of gifted student programs for all of sw Kansas and holder of a masters degree in education and counseling. She was relating at dinner that that a former student of hers, a first time family college graduate from a town of 300, had just received a Rhodes Scholarship. She was mentioning how on line programs had been established and taught by university professors to reach gifted high school students in small school districts. To that, our guest blurted, after drinking too much, "I didn't know you people out here knew anything like that."

Well that too often sums it up. There is life beyond the coasts, I've lived all over, and it can be very pleasant out here if you let it be.

[sonny]

it can be very pleasant out here if you let it be.

sage words for many things

[Saab2000]

caleb:
Ft hays state in kansas is a school with forward thinking administration trying to grow. The community is nice, living is easy. There is a strong bicycling community.

Others:
Out here in fly over country, we have always noticed a tendency for east and west coasters to look down on those who do not choose to live where they live. Yet, much of this area was untouched by the recession, jobs have remained strong, low crime, good schools, and strong communities. Cities from texas to north dakota advertise for workers of many types. Some smaller cities try to spur growth by offering free lots to new residents. A decent and livable house still can be had for well under $200,000. A person can buy an acreage inexpensively. People still leave their houses and cars unlocked.

Some years back i had invited a fellow from the east to come pheasant hunting with us. Its world class hunting for wild birds, its free, and uncrowded. We hunted a friend's land, he is a significant business owner, she the recently retired director/coordinator of gifted student programs for all of sw kansas and holder of a masters degree in education and counseling. She was relating at dinner that that a former student of hers, a first time family college graduate from a town of 300, had just received a rhodes scholarship. She was mentioning how on line programs had been established and taught by university professors to reach gifted high school students in small school districts. To that, our guest blurted, after drinking too much, "i didn't know you people out here knew anything like that."

well that too often sums it up. There is life beyond the coasts, i've lived all over, and it can be very pleasant out here if you let it be.

poty


.

[hidayanra]

Caleb:
Ft Hays State in Kansas is a school with forward thinking administration trying to grow. The community is nice, living is easy.

Others: Out here in fly over country,
<snip>
Well that too often sums it up. There is life beyond the coasts, I've lived all over, and it can be very pleasant out here if you let it be.

A whole lot of truth.
I lived in central Kansas for a few years, my first really serious relationship was with someone from Hays.
My stay in KS was sandwiched between living in Peru and Denmark, with lots of other moving before and after. Choosing to be content and finding satisfaction is something I've "had" to do a few times, and other times I've had it come to me without as much work.
I have yet to find a place where I couldn't find work, just a matter of how hard and how long I needed to spend looking for it.

The midwest wasn't a terrible place as long as I decided to want the stuff I could get there. Lots of access to open country, lots of access to cheap housing, plenty of quiet neighborhoods... there's good stuff to be had.
I'd roughly equate this to deciding to prefer the color of your partner's hair even if it didn't use to be your #1 favorite... if life puts you there, it's just good policy ;)

In my case, I prefer to have immediate access to oceans, mountains, while living in some significant urban density - but doing without is perfectly possible. I don't want to live in the midwest right now, but that's not to say it won't ever happen again in my life.

[Nierman]

I've heard Ellis KS is a nice place to live for two days.

[hidayanra]

I've heard Ellis KS is a nice place to live

I almost contributed to that thread... but no in fact, that may not actually be the case ;)
Much like some other salonistas I've been there, but I was able to get out a bit more quickly.

[caleb]

Caleb:
Ft Hays State in Kansas is a school with forward thinking administration trying to grow. The community is nice, living is easy. There is a strong bicycling community.

I hope I didn't come across as denigrating Fort Hayes. I have no doubt that, as you put it, "life can be pleasant if you let it be." If I were on the job market, I'd apply for that Fort Hayes job. It'd be great to be able to see my pointer running out in the great wide open.

[sonny]

Times_square_red_times_square_blue.jpg

networking vs contact

[TomW]

If you have a NYTimes subscription (or you may be able to read this for free anyway)... it is worth reading the following. It is about the rise of the temp economy and the loss of good jobs permanently (not just off-shored to China).

The Rise of the Permanent Temp Economy - NYTimes.com

To quote the conclusion:

A growing number of people call for bringing outsourced jobs back to America. But if they return as shoddy, poverty-wage jobs — jobs designed for “Never-Never Girls” rather than valued employees — we won’t be better off for having them. If we want good jobs rather than just any jobs, we need to figure out how to preserve what is useful and innovative about temporary employment while jettisoning the anti-worker ideology that has come to accompany it.

[lukasz]

I don't quite agree with that. It is a little jingoistic and a little ignorant of the fact that a lot of these jobs were not poverty-wage between FDR and Reagan. If we're talking about people servicing machines rather than doing the job of the machine then I'm not going to ignore the fact that someone in another country had to build that machine at a poverty wage. Great, the Mac I'm typing on will be assembled in the USA in the next few years, but LCD screens and motherboards don't grow on trees.

About the stock market: I am constantly amused by op-eds that express surprise that the rich are doing well in a recession--as if that were not historically ALWAYS the case. A recession is a growth in the gap between the richest and the poorest, not a tide that lowers all boats.

[Dallas Tex]

Jobs and prosperity come from businesses expanding and investing in R&D / new technologies. Its suprising that many people think we can have a prosperous economy without prosperous businesses & business owners.

There is PLENTY of money to expand businesses and invest in new technologies RIGHT NOW. The problem is the money is 'on the sidelines' waiting to see what the business landscape will be. Investors and businesses can operate well in any environment, except uncertainty.

Make taxes high, make taxes low, create new loopholes, close others, mandate healthcare, etc. One way or the other, just do it so that meaningful business planning & budgeting can be done.

This current environment of not knowing what is coming next, imho is the biggest drag to meaningful job growth.

[EricKeller]

I am despairing of the situation we see now in business. Back in the '90s I still thought that I could invest in companies and they, in turn, wanted to make me money. Now I feel like most companies are in the business of executive compensation. This, in combination with the favorable climate for finance, has really weakened the U.S. economy.

It's interesting to see a push in China for government regulations. The whole notion that you can off-shore your bad practices is eventually going to be shown to be incorrect.