Work Force Changing : Youth Struggle for Identity

I think there are other reasons as well - older worker are staying on the job longer as to retire now is not a good idea with the economy headed down and  inflation is headed up on food and energy. Also many students educations are worthless in our expanding high tech industries. You won't get far on an English major or sixth century cultures studies.

Yeah I know the fed says inflation is low but all one has to do is have a little experience at grocery shopping to understand the cost of food is much higher then it was four years ago and going higher everyday. Oh and the fed doesn't list food or energy in it's calculations. Really?

And energy is being held in place by government decree, no drilling or fracking expansion for oil or natural gas on federal lands, forcing families to allocate more and more of their discretionary monies on fuel for their cars and homes. And it's not an accident this is happening, this is by design which the federal reserve is playing a major role having it's fat thumb on the scales with it's bond buying policies of $85 billion a month.

Little wonder then young people will find it harder and harder to secure work having to fight not only a bad economy but they are ill prepared to cope with the new realities of modern industries. Many students have only one thing to claim as an expertise, good action with their thumbs. A very sad state of affairs.

Why the Workforce Is Lacking Young People
Source: Steve Hargreaves, "Why Young People Are Saying 'No' To the Workforce," CNN Money, October 22, 2013.
November 11, 2013

A job used to be the next step after a diploma. But now, young people aren't in any rush to start working, says CNN Money.

• Less than 78 percent of people aged 20 to 34 either have jobs or are looking for work, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS).
• That's down from the peak of 83 percent in 2000, and the lowest since the 1970s.

Recessions are particularly hard on the young, with last-in, first-out policies at many organizations and a preference at firms to freeze hiring before they start laying off employees, which hurts recent grads.

"We used to say that a high school degree wasn't sufficient to provide a middle class income," says Bill Rodgers, a professor and chief economist at Rutgers University's Heldrich Center for Workforce Development. "Now we're saying no longer is a bachelor's degree."

But there are other reasons as well -- what economists call "structural changes" -- that could mean a permanent shift in workplace demographics.

• 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, according to BLS. There could be many reasons for that, but Rodgers thinks stagnant wages on top of rising child care costs are two of them.
• The percentage of the people aged 55 and over in the workforce has gone from just over 30 percent in 2000 to over 40 percent currently, according to BLS.

The result is fewer opportunities on the lower end of the job ladder, which has kept a lot of millennials on the sidelines.