Millennials and the Danger of a Lost Generation

Many of us have heard about the troubles that the current Millennial Generation is facing. The Millennials are Americans who are between 19 and 33 years old. They are also the generation struggling the most in the modern American workforce – struggling the most to get jobs and struggling to avoid unemployment. Only 2 years ago, 53% of all job postings in Texas were for jobs that required at least an associate’s degree. Now employers are settling down – a bit. Only 40% of all jobs require a college degree of some kind to apply, according to economists at The Conference Board and Wanted Analytics, which produces the Help Wanted Online report. But employers are still keeping the bar high in order to apply for a job. Employers realize that there are about 2 unemployed people for every 1 job opening in Texas, so they recognize that the “buyer’s market” continues. That’s why job descriptions are often looking for job applicants who have many years of work experience. That’s a problem for the young people in the Millennial Generation, who haven’t been on this planet many years and when they did reach working age they were faced with the worst jobs market amid the worst recession in a century. The unemployment rate for people ages 18-29 years old is a little more than 11% - or about twice the national average – according to research by the non-profit group Generation Opportunity, in Washington, D.C. I’ve looked at the employment data from the U.S. Department of Labor and I think that conclusion is correct – that the unemployment rate for Millennials is twice the national average. And that if the nearly 2 million Millennials who are neither working nor looking for work are counted then the real unemployment rate for these young people is around 16% - or almost 3 times the national average. When I break out the data from the U.S. Department of Labor, what I see is that people ages 18-34 make up about 34% of the workforce. But we know that they only account for a little more than 21% of the workers. That is workforce that is out of balance. And that is a workforce where many millions of young adults are not working. Many in the Millennial generation say that their generation faces the dual threat of: a) Joblessness b) Crushing student loan debt That may be. What I see is that we are facing a potential “Lost Generation” of millions of Americans and millions of Texans who are getting started very late on their career path. That delay (for whatever reason) is setting them back in their career progress and their lifetime earnings. What is needed is for these young people to apply some flexibility in their lives and get jobs – perhaps any jobs. They have to get started on their career paths. They have to progress on their career paths. Do we really want our government and our industries in America run in 30 years by people who have very little experience at work – by people who have gained very little experience at collaborating with co-workers to get things done because they didn’t have co-workers? I don’t think anybody wants that.