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Young, Educated, and Unemployed: A New Generation of Kids Search for Work in their 20s
Featured Author:
GOOD Magazine
More articles from this author:
The Lost Generation: What it’s like for 20-somethings to go in search of meaningful work—and not find it.
Since January, for 35 hours a week, at a rate of $10 an hour, Luke Stacks has been working for a home-electronics chain. He answers the phone and attempts to coax callers into buying more stuff. This is not how he imagined he would be spending his late 20s.
Like a lot of us, Stacks was given a fairly straightforward version of how his life would unfold: He would go to college and study something he found interesting, graduate, and get a decent job. For a while, things went pretty much according to plan. Stacks, who now is 27, went to the University of Virginia, not far from where he grew up, majoring in American Studies. He later enrolled in a Ph.D. program at the University of Iowa, with the eventual goal of becoming a professor.
Flash forward to the fall of 2008, when the stock market crashed. There were never enough jobs for newly minted Ph.D.s to begin with, and now the likelihood of landing a tenure-track teaching position in the humanities was slim. Academia stopped looking like such a sure bet and Stacks grew disenchanted with his program. Even if he were to finish his doctorate, he reasoned, a job was in no way guaranteed to follow. He wondered, “How bad could it really be out there?” Turns out, it’s pretty bad.
So, in May of 2009, equipped with a master’s degree and a decent amount of courage, Stacks changed course. Shortly after graduation, he moved back in with his mother, who lives in Chantilly, Virginia. And from a desk in his bedroom, still littered with childhood toys and posters, Stacks started over.
What confronted him was not exactly pleasant. What once thrilled him—curating museum exhibits, making comic books, being a curious person—now seemed to make little financial sense. “I’m not confident that schooling has a direct connection with employment anymore,” he says. “But if I hadn’t received the kind of education I did, I would be less of an active citizen and less engaged in the world in ways I would not have discovered on my own.” And while passion and intellectual curiosity can’t be measured in dollars and cents, he expected they might at least secure a paycheck.
The unemployment rate among workers with at least a college degree is the highest it has been since the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics began tracking such data, in 1970.
As time passed, Stacks’s confidence flagged. “It’s the hardest thing in the world to write another cover letter about your great accomplishments if you question every day the greatness of your accomplishments,” he says.
MichaelMyers0
8 days ago
4 comments
ARGGHHH!! This is exactly my story too! I've been outta school 2 years now and even with a BA I'm working at a restaurant. I was surfing the web today, however, and this article has given me a hope! Plz check it out if you've ever felt as lost as I have!
http://www.businessinsider.com/stand-apart-from-the-2-million-other-new-grads-pouring-into-the-job-market-this-year-2012-5#ixzz1uIAlOEEc
Kkranb
13 days ago
2 comments
I am in the same boat as lindz, graduated from a very good undergrad program, but all of the jobs require experience! How can you get experience if you can't even get your foot in the door!?!? It is insanely frustrating to work so so hard for four, or in my case five, years and have nothing pan out to the point where you can't even support yourself minimally! It's outrageous.
edsonevertsz
2 months ago
2 comments
Can relate to this story. Graduated a few years ago with a Master degree in Forensic Science and still not able to find a job!
Rfabii
4 months ago
4 comments
This article is a downer. i was waiting for a happy ending...
richards0103
5 months ago
2 comments
im getting really discourage the more time that goes by the longer they see were outta work which makes us less experienced whats going on times are so tough right now
Lindz784
5 months ago
2 comments
Thank goodness I'm not the only one! Graduated in May with my Masters, while working full time and living at home. My job didn't pay much, but it worked out because I was living at home. Now I'm on my own in Florida making ends meet. It's tough when you put so much effort into doing what is right, and then there isn't much offered out there unless you have "experience". Hard to get "experience" when nobody is willing to hire. I'm smart and I learn quickly, but apparently that doesn't mean much to many companies.... I just want a chance already!!
SMILEANYWAY
6 months ago
8 comments
COLLEGE GRADUATES ARE UNEMPLOYED BECAUSE HIGH SCHOOL GRADUATES ARE SMARTER WHEN THEY GRADUATE. AND EVEN THOUGH YOU HAVE A COLLEGE DEGREE YOU WILL LIKELY FIND YOURSELF IN AN ENTRY LEVEL JOB ANYWAY .UNLESS YOU GOT SOME EXPERIENCE WHILE YOU WERE IN SCHOOL. AND EVEN THEN YOU BETTER BE ABLE TO PLAY OFFICE POLITICS. CAUSE THERE'S SOME SENIOR PERSON THAT WON'T BE TOO WILLING TO GIVE UP HIS OR HER POSITION.
bzombo
6 months ago
2 comments
I graduated in 1998 and it took me until 2001 to find the job that I really likied and matched my degree. It was hard then too!. Life is not a cakewalk. People are not waiting to give things to you. You have to work to get what you want. Companies NEVER were just waiting for kids with degrees to show up at their door. You had to do something to make them want you. Stop complaining and get out there and work! If that means working retail for a year or two before finding that job you really want, then so be it. What the heck are those who are complaining going to do when they have families and all sorts of new stresses and pressures present themselves? With all the whining, I'm starting to suspect that curling up in a corner and crying will be the chosen response. Suck it up and find a job!
Smithjes88
6 months ago
2 comments
Graduated last year May 2010 with a bachelor's degree in Public Relations with a minor in Event Planning. Didn't think it would be nearly impossible finding a job. Worked my butt off in college and with my 2 year anniversary coming up since graduating Im getting nervous. I've been applying for entry-level/assistant jobs and same response of that I've no experience. How the hell am I suppose to get experience if no one will give me the chance??? Makes no sense at ALL!
MYBATZ13
7 months ago
34 comments
It has always been important to me to be an active citizen. My cover letter needs work.
jdr0317
8 months ago
2 comments
Two people who just finished in May (first jobs can be hard to find, still sucks but it took me a year), and one guy who majored in American Studies?
Why can these articles never just say the core issue: we have a surplus of kids getting degrees in ______ Studies, Sociology, Film, and other warm/fuzzy degrees, and we have a shortage of quality people in math/science/tech/etc. Kids who spend their academic career pursuing a narrow interest and not adding any transitive skills that employers look for are doing themselves a disservice.
"I know how to think" is a common general one I hear. Well, so can I, and I can also data mine, do statistical analysis, pipeline data, write code in multiple languages, etc.
EamonOConnor
8 months ago
4 comments
big ups sirkennuth!
patbenmi
8 months ago
2 comments
I feel I'm in the same place, working a dead-end retail job.
HeatherKay
8 months ago
2 comments
I liked this article a lot because it showed me that I'm not alone.
sirkennuth
8 months ago
2 comments
Wow thanks for the wonderful language one comes to expect from the un-educated masses Bronzino. How does your comment help anyone more than the article did? It is however beneficial, at least to me, to know that I'm not the only one that has had a hard time after graduating. Bronzino, you are the kind of person who takes a dream and crushes it under your heel until there is nothing left but a cancerous paracite that turns what could have been the spark to ignite a fulfilling career into a life of anger, resentment, and loathing. The truth is that maybe we need to do a bit more research into what those hiring in our chosen fields are looking for, not just what the university says that you have to have to get the degree. If you find yourself lacking stack the cards in your favor and do what it takes to get noticed. If that means more school so be it. If it means washing a potential boss's golf cart, do it. We don't have to give up just because we weren't given everything in our lives. We have to fight for it. Everyone else has had to so why shouldn't we have to? I say gird up your loins and get back into battle, but no longer rely on just the advice of your calendar year college catelog. Do the research for your self. We can do this! We just have to remind ourselves of that. And just so you don't think that I'm one of those people that has it made; I graduated in December 2009 and have been trying to find a job as a teacher for the past almost 2 years. I work part time retail and it's killing me, but I have decided to take back control of my life. I know we will succeed if we're willing to work for it.