The Economy can Bite Me

So apparently the economy is super awesome for new graduates according to ABC News.

"The entire process was intimidating," Shawn Basak a soon to be Northwestern grad said. "It was nerve-wracking, given the state of the economy, which compounded the fear and pressure."

His worries were misplaced, thanks in part to the masses of retiring baby-boomers making way for the likes of Basak, who eventually landed three attractive job offers...

"[Companies] are seeing a lot more retirements of the more seasoned employees and need to replace them with new talent," Andrea Knock of the National Association of Colleges and Employers said."

Now wait a damn minute. Does anyone really believe that?? Are you honestly telling me that a 65 year old brain surgeon who leads his department is being replaced by a 23 year old just out of college dude named Shawn? I call BS on this piece.

Fact is, that the "new talent" that Andrea Knock speaks so highly of is still people that are middle aged. They get to move up. Young people aren't getting hot sexy jobs because seniors are retiring.

"The 45 million young people in the U.S. work force face a choppy job market in which entry-level wages have often trailed inflation, making it hard for many to cope with high housing costs and college debt loads." Says the International Harald Tribune last year."

And hows that housing market working out for ya?? Exactly.....

The ABC report goes on to say that the job markets where people can expect to pull jobs are in aerospace engenearing and "financial services." And new engeneers can expect a whoping 6% increase in starting salaries. So... if you were making say $45k to start you'd now be making $47,700 a year. To put that into prospective best jobs for this type of work are going to be in Florida, California.. places like that. Orange County or San Diego California for example - well Orange County is number 4 on the least affordable places to live so you're going to have to live more in LA and take the bus to work or spend 3 hours on the 405. San Diego? The National Low Income Housing Coalition considers minimum salary you'll have to make to pay rent without going over spending 30% of your income is $47,547 so as long as you'll get about $150 bucks more a year than you need! Swell!!

Florida? Florida is better.. you only have to earn $2,834 a month to be able to score an apartment. Take it easy on getting excited about the house though, cause minimum average price" (and that's not the sexy houses) is about $230k.

"At the University of California-Los Angeles, Career Center Director Kathy Sims said she sees "little correlation" between reports of a sluggish economy and on-campus recruiting activity."

So we've covered graduates from Northwestern and UCLA. Why don't we just poll Harvard and Yale people and see how hard it is for them to get a gig, eh? This doesn't deal with the oh 10 million or so other kids who graduated from states like Kansas, Missouri, Wyoming, Arkansas, Mississippi, Montana.... How are graduates from those states doing?

My point is this: ABC News falls into that same age old trap that so many politicians who talk about the economy and the job market for young people fall into. They are trusting the Bush spin.

Nowhere in this article does it talk about the average debt that college graduates leave school with. In 1999-2000 - those prosperous economic days the number doubled for college debt spiking to nearly $17,000. Today its $20,000, more if you go to a private school. Add to that a lessening availability for health care and benefits, no pensions, and we're putting loads of money into a social security system we may never see a dime out of.

Swell economy. ABC needs to think a little outside the GOP talking points. Bite me? Yeah, I think it already has.