-Wait, why are young people saying no to work?-

Article: Why young people are saying “no” to the workforce

Author: Steve Hargreaves

Date of article: October 22, 2013

Website: CNN Money

                The title of this article was the first thing that caught my eye. I thought to myself; “why young people are saying no…to work? What? If my parents found out I rejected a well paying job after college, I would be dead meat.” So out of curiosity, I read further into the article and I found some interesting aspects of this issue.

Let’s start off with some concrete facts: “78% of people aged 20 to 34 either have jobs or are looking for work, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. That's down from the peak of 83% in 2000, and the lowest since the 1970s.” Once the numbers are on the table, we begin to look at some possible reasons for this drop in number of young people in the work force. The article puts it bluntly; “the biggest thing keeping young people out of work is the weak economy,” which is understandable, after the huge recession and bank failures in 2008, our economy suffered some significant damage and is still recovering from the fall. With that, there are also some other reasons for this shift in workplace demographics which economists call “structural changes.”

One being school and education in general. With college tuition leaping higher and higher in cost each year, students are forced to take longer to graduate as they take fewer classes per semester while scraping enough money for another year. Along with that comes the desire for a higher degree, meaning that since students are paying ridiculous amounts for a college education, they take the opportunity to get more advanced degrees, therefore stay in school longer.

Secondly, young people are just simply staying home more often. “Since 2000, married women between the ages of 25 and 34 have been leaving the labor force at a slightly higher rate than young people at large.” This is also makes sound sense, when a recession hits and money is short, it makes people rethink their priorities and question what they really want in life and for young people the decision is usually to spend time with their children.

Thirdly, one which I didn’t consider, is that people are living longer which means a delay on huge life milestones. This isn’t as bad as the first two; this could help our economy in the long run. Unlike the other two reasons that can’t be changed easily, this doesn’t have to change because it’s not particularly damaging, it just shows that we are inching towards a drastic demographic shift for this upcoming generation.

And lastly, some young people fresh out of college are simply giving up on the workforce, with the baby boom generation’s delaying retirement and the nasty economic situation, the new generation of young workers have lost all hope in the system and just quit. It’s a sad dilemma but it is reality.