American dream fades for Generation Y professionals
Generation Y professionals entering the workforce are finding careers that once were gateways to high pay and upwardly mobile lives turning into detours and dead ends. Average incomes for individuals ages 25 to 34 have fallen 8 percent, double the adult population’s total drop, since the recession began in December 2007. Their unemployment rate remains stuck one-half to 1 percentage point above the national figure.
Three and a half years after the worst recession since the Great Depression, the earnings and employment gap between those in the under-35 population and their parents and grandparents threatens to unravel the American dream of each generation doing better than the last. The nation’s younger workers have benefited least from an economic recovery that has been the most uneven in recent history.
“This generation will be permanently depressed and will be on a lower path of income for probably all of their life — and at least the next 10 years,” says Rutgers professor Cliff Zukin, a senior research fellow at the university’s John J. Heldrich Center for Workforce Development. Professionals who start out in jobs other than their first choice tend to stay on the alternative path, earning less than they would have otherwise while becoming less likely to start over again later in preferred fields, Zukin says.
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Let me be the first to say it–they voted for this administration.
vityas on December 23, 2012 at 8:57 PM
It ain’t so hot for Gen X either, but we were smart enough not to vote for it.
Ted Torgerson on December 23, 2012 at 9:03 PM
The recession never ended.
txhsmom on December 23, 2012 at 9:05 PM
Amen.
Part of Gen Y’s problem (and our problem) is baby boomers not retiring as expected because their retirement nest eggs have gone up in smoke.
JimLennon on December 23, 2012 at 9:12 PM
Who needs a job when gays can get married and birth control is free.
Mark1971 on December 23, 2012 at 9:12 PM
And when pot is legal, depending on the state.
JimLennon on December 23, 2012 at 9:13 PM
Too bad you voted for the people who are only going to make it worse.
Call 1-800-tuf-shit on your free Barky Phone for more information.
Bishop on December 23, 2012 at 9:15 PM
Fortunately, my college loans are paid off.
Jeddite on December 23, 2012 at 9:25 PM
There’s certainly a problem for Gen Y – there’s very little incentive not to hire far more experienced people for a slightly higher package.
Hope’n'Change – now in Technicolor.
CorporatePiggy on December 23, 2012 at 9:29 PM
As a 34 year old right at the edge of Gen X/Y I can certainly say I didn’t vote for this crap, unless you mean voting for GWB twice. Don’t forget we’ve been putting up Dem-lite candidates the past 2 elections. What happened to Reagan’s broad, clear strokes and allowing a clear vision for others to see where we stand. I don’t see hope for any generation after the baby boomers helped create this path of destruction. (If you want to blame any generation.)
njrob on December 23, 2012 at 9:40 PM
Notice how these bad economic stories come out more now after the election. I’m in this age group, and geny deserve all of its economic headache. Unfortunately, they care more about some asinine issues or have worldviews that are utterly nuts.
IR-MN on December 23, 2012 at 9:50 PM
Ted Torgerson on December 23, 2012 at 9:03 PM
This^^^
annoyinglittletwerp on December 23, 2012 at 9:58 PM
I didn’t vote for this crap either, but am certainly eating the consequences for the rest of this generation.
But as long as the rest of my age group doesn’t have to worry about anything or anybody standing in the way of whatever sort of deviant sex they enjoy. Yes, free contraception, easy abortion, gay marriage, and efforts to remove the word “slut” from the vocabulary. Indeed, who needs worthwhile employment, legitimate hope for the future, and a chance to raise a family and experience any sort of real happiness or fulfillment when it is far more important to vote with one’s junk.
I hate my generation. I hope the slime that voted for this idiot receive all of economic hardships in triplicate and spend their 30s finding which of their VDs aren’t covered by Obamacare.
Gingotts on December 23, 2012 at 10:04 PM
Well done you idiot Obama voters.
WisCon on December 23, 2012 at 10:39 PM
Fundamental change and status quo are not compatible. If gen Ys did not realize this, then their education was a waste of time and money.
OldEnglish on December 23, 2012 at 10:42 PM
There are only so many jobs that require a sociology degree.
gator70 on December 23, 2012 at 10:42 PM
Obama will give them food stamps and ObaamPhones and maybe a gooberment job for these new goobers.
VorDaj on December 23, 2012 at 11:21 PM
Win and winner.
The liberals are, quite literally, attempting to stifle dissent (especially the armed variety) by getting the population too distracted with having sex and being stoned.
They’ve done a great deal of damage already. Extramarital sex is not only no longer publicly shameful but socially encouraged and publicly sponsored. Americans already snort, swallow, and shoot up every natural chemical imaginable – plus man-made ones – to the point that conservatives have basically adopted libertarian talking points for an ‘honorable surrender’.
MelonCollie on December 23, 2012 at 11:29 PM
Ay. Frigging. Men.
MelonCollie on December 23, 2012 at 11:30 PM
Pegged at zero.
greggriffith on December 23, 2012 at 11:46 PM
On one thread I’m blasted because I retire and draw Social Security.
On another thread I’m blasted because I don’t retire and keep on working.
Gen whine.
davidk on December 24, 2012 at 12:01 AM
Enjoy Obamaland, fools.
Schadenfreude on December 24, 2012 at 12:17 AM
As a baby-boomer, I have no plans to retire any time soon (although I had my wife stop working and start drawing SocSec (before the well runs dry – she should get something for all of her contributions…). And I have no sympathy for the idiots who voted for what’s coming. If they are too stupid (not ignorant, stupid) to find out what they are voting for, they deserve what’s going to happen to them. Call it a learning experience.
RoadRunner on December 24, 2012 at 12:19 AM
Congress needs to pass a law that individuals with mental illness should not have access to guns. Based on the recent election, that would be about 51 percent of the country.
Schadenfreude on December 24, 2012 at 12:19 AM
http://ace.mu.nu/archives/335903.php
davidk on December 24, 2012 at 12:42 AM
Their education was a waste of money… that’s a given. Parents were paying to indoctrinate, not educate.
njrob on December 24, 2012 at 12:50 AM
It’s a Brave New World, literally.
njrob on December 24, 2012 at 12:51 AM
http://directorblue.blogspot.com/2012/12/s-just-got-real-10-most-troubling.html
davidk on December 24, 2012 at 1:41 AM
On the bright side, since they were so eager to vote for Obama, I must say I feel better about retiring, knowing these kids are happy to pay higher taxes so I can enjoy myself!
Night Owl on December 24, 2012 at 4:53 AM
Hmmm, American labor organizing has declined precipitously over the last 30 years. And what do you know, American wages and pension benefits, when measured for inflation, have declined precipitously over the last 30 years. When will conservatives get it, that the death of the middle class job came with the death of the union. Why do you think employers union bust…they want to keep more of their income at the top. What incentive to employers have to pay people more when they can fire anyone who wants more for an incoming worker. This has *NOTHING* to do with the tax code. This is about a cultural shift away from American workers believing they should have value and towards people accepting they are powerless cogs in corporate machines.
libfreeordie on December 24, 2012 at 7:24 AM
Nice theory, but you forgot about the part where the unions drove up the cost of labor to the point a lot of manufacturing went overseas. I know this is true, so don’t try to say it’s not.
Night Owl on December 24, 2012 at 7:42 AM
There is some truth to this. But it assumes that corporations must not only turn a profit each year, but increase their MARGIN of profit each year in order to be succesful. That’s an arbitrary standard and ultimately it is unsustainable. So the result has been depressed wages and that will continue to be the case until the American worker rises up again. You think its government thats the problem, government can not do anything to make corporations pay their workers more or to offer more benefits. Nothing.
libfreeordie on December 24, 2012 at 7:50 AM
And unions blackmail employers into giving higher wages and benefits than people are worth. Also, it hurts companies to have unions because it makes it almost impossible to get rid of the dead weight. I know this is true because sadly, my brother-in-law is dead weight, has been fired twice, and both times got his job back. His nickname is slug.
Night Owl on December 24, 2012 at 7:56 AM
Unions are not perfect. But they were the only reason middle class Americans were able to support a family of four for so long in the 20th century. Prior to the labor movement, there was no American middle class. Without the labor movement, the middle class is suffering. I don’t understand why conservatives blame the government for this. How is it the government’s fault that employers spent the 1990s and 2000s, two overall successful decades, slashing pension benefits?
libfreeordie on December 24, 2012 at 8:01 AM
I don’t blame the government for the problems unions cause to corporations. I blame the government (radical leftist democrats) for encouraging the behavior like we saw a few weeks ago, forced union dues, used to pay for radical leftist democrat campaigns. Why don’t the unions fund their pension plans? They are supposed to, but when it comes time to pay, they don’t have the money. Where did it go? They abused the system and now they don’t have a good reputation. I don’t understand why radical leftist democrats don’t understand this. Public employee unions are the worst. They are bankrupting cities all over the country.
Night Owl on December 24, 2012 at 8:11 AM
You’re wrong. But for the sake of argument, don’t you think that the American worker should be able to choose whether to join a union or not, and whether to pay dues? Why do Leftists reject freedom of choice when it comes to work and schools?
visions on December 24, 2012 at 8:24 AM
What does this mean, specifically? When the American worker “rises up” what exactly would that entail?
visions on December 24, 2012 at 8:27 AM
This is the “New Normal” commie libs wanted, and Dems were happy to help achieve.
A universal helpless feelings, and more (goal = total) reliance on gubmint.
Sir Napsalot on December 24, 2012 at 8:49 AM
Pelosi/Obama: Passing ObamaCare would create millions of jobs, reduce everybody’s healthcare cost, and turn the economy around.
Something like that.
Sir Napsalot on December 24, 2012 at 8:56 AM
Any worker who does not want to be part of the union should not benefit from any union won benefits. Your employment should pay what it paid before the union showed up. Period end of story. You want benefits, you join the union that won the benefits. You don’t want the union, than work under non-union conditions. How is that not fair?
libfreeordie on December 24, 2012 at 8:56 AM
So, what you are saying is that it isn’t fair for one group of people to benefit from the work of others? Hmmm… Sounds kind of familiar.
Night Owl on December 24, 2012 at 9:03 AM
Heh!
I don’t begrudge them their choice not to retire at all; I’m just stated what I know anecdotally to be true. I know plenty of friends and family members who took a shellacking in 2008 and moved their original retirement date back from 2010-2013 to 2015-2018. Given that companies aren’t exactly adding jobs at a breakneck pace, that means companies are sticking with the workers they have instead of adding new ones.
“Rick, John, and Linda aren’t retiring this year after all? Great! I’d hate to see them go. By the way, we can now cancel that visit to the job fair at State U.”
On the other end of this though, this will have long term demographic implications. I’ll be 37 in April. Ten years ago I fully planned to be married and have a couple of kids by now. I’m still single, and really not even looking because my financial situation is so unsettled. At the rate things are going, I’m probably going to die single and childless. I thought I had a “real degree” that would get me a decent job in the 40-50k range (my bachelor’s is in mathematics with a physics minor), but it turns out I was wrong. :-/
JimLennon on December 24, 2012 at 9:18 AM
No it didn’t and it’s infuriating every time I see someone write about the “recovery.”
Nor is it for some of us boomers, either.
dogsoldier on December 24, 2012 at 9:20 AM
Programming and IT courses will probably help you….
dogsoldier on December 24, 2012 at 9:22 AM
And each of the several porkuluses er porkuli as well, except the money went to Oblama’s pals at places like Solyndra and A123 which are now defunct. They were fake-make work shells to siphon off and steal our tax money.
dogsoldier on December 24, 2012 at 9:24 AM