Job hopes dim for new college grads
Despite modest gains in the nation's overall employment rates, young people still suffer disproportionately in a weakened economy
(4-16-02) BOSTON, Mass. -- As another class of newly minted college graduates prepares to descends on the working world, they face a particularly difficult road in the job search that others in graduating classes before them didn't have to hurdle, according to researchers at Northeastern University's Center for Labor Market Studies.
Recent analysis of data from the US Department of Labor Statistics shows that young people, ages 16 to 24, have in particular, borne the brunt of the recession, suffering disproportionately in the nation's weakened economy. People in this age category account for some 53 percent of the total job losses despite the fact that they make up only 15 percent of the overall population. Despite the somewhat heartening news that unemployment overall has inched down from 5.6 percent to 5.5 percent, young adults 16 to 24 are still six times more likely than America's older adults to be out of work.
"The recession for young people has been more like a depression," said Andrew Sum, director of the Center and author of the recent study on youth unemployment. “With the March data, it appears that youth unemployment has gotten even worse, offsetting a major portion of the gains in their employment rates that they made during the economic boom of the 1990s." To make matters worse, Sum said, “a rapidly rising number of young adults over the next five years will further complicate the task of restoring short-term increases in their employment rates.”
All this ads up to a much-changed job market for the nation's newest graduates, forcing recent grads to either spring for freebie internships, live with their parents, or accept positions that are lower in pay and prestige.
“The weakening of the US labor markets since the early winter of 2001, combined with the accelerated economic decline following the terrorist attacks of September 11 have taken a severe toll on job opportunities for the nation’s young adults," Sum said. "Given that the population of people ages 16 to 24 is expected to rise by seven percent (verses a rate of five percent growth for ages 25 and older), this factor is particularly serious.” Sum also points out that a larger share of unemployed young people will be from different ethnic and racial groups, including Asians, Hispanics and recent immigrants.
Sum cites several compelling reasons for a federal stimulus package program targeting this age group’s employment and training, including their own purchasing power, the boost for job opportunities across the board that such a package would provide, the provision of public services, an overall reduction in poverty among low-income families, and an overall increase in literacy/numeracy skills among this age group.
Media contact: Christine Phelan 617-373-5455 c.phelan at neu.edu
The March data on this trend is also available online: http://www.nupr.neu.edu/04-02/youth.html
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