College Students: The lost generation of workers?

We all know the economy have been on a bit of a rough patch to say the least, and as a result of that students across every college campus in the Nation are facing similar worries. Tuition costs are rising, healthcare costs are rising, and really about every other cost out there is rising too. Students have had to increase their work loads and do everything they can to have some extra cash.

Something bad happened in the past 10 years to young workers in this country: Since 1999, more of them now have lower-paying jobs, if they can get a job at all; health care is a rare luxury and retirement security is something for their parents, not them. In fact, many—younger than 35—still live at home with their parents because they can’t afford to be on their own.

The idea of moving out when your 18 and graduated high school and can start your own life is turning into stay with mom and dad as long as possible until I graduate college and maybe get a decent job.

• Health care costs for an individual are around $8,000 a year.
• Tuition costs (at your in state public university) are about the same, mine this year is about $10,000,
• Now add in living expenses - about $400 a month for rent and bills. (so multiple by 12 and you get $4,800)
• Let's not forget food/ gas/ and other miscellaneous costs. Let's say about $600 a month (so multiply by 12 again and you get $7,200)

That gives us $30,000 a year. At my job I make $8.70 an hour so if I were to work 40 hours a week (which I work nowhere near this) I would make $348 weekly so $1,392 monthly or $16,704 yearly.

So where does that other $13,296 come from to help me pay for that $30,000 a year?

We'll luckily I don't actually have to pay for my own insurance yet, and I have student loans to cover tuition until I graduate at which point they own my soul, and my parents are really cool and help me out. Unfortunately my situation is not the same as most. A lot of student have to handle all these expenses on their own.

Young Workers: A Lost Decade. Conducted in July 2009 by Peter D. Hart Research Associates for the AFL-CIO the nationwide survey of 1,156 people follows up on a similar survey the AFL-CIO conducted in 1999. The deterioration of young workers’ economic situation in those 10 years is alarming.

Nate Scherer, 31, is among today’s young workers. Scherer lives in Columbus, Ohio, where he shares a home with his wife, his parents, brother and his partner. He spoke at a media conference at the AFL-CIO today to discuss the report.

After getting married, my wife and I decided to move in with my parents to pay off our bills. We could afford to live on our own but we’d never be able to get out of debt. We have school loans to pay off, too. We’d like to have children, but we just can’t manage the expense of it right now…so we’re putting it off till we’re in a better place. My [work] position is on the edge, and I feel like if my company were to cut back, my position would be one of the first to go.

Nate's case is becoming the reality for many youth as they graduate college and have massive amounts of debt to pay off. We have gone from a society that set up youth for the future to one that sucks them dry at every chance possible.

Why did this happen? Was it the banks? Was it the President's fault? What caused all of this to happen?

There really isn't a clear answer. I can assume the banking crisis had something to do with it, but there is no research sending me in that direction. I think more over it's a lifetime of mistakes by America. We have made higher education too expensive. We have made healthcare too expensive. We have made wages too low. We have made basic living essentials too expensive.

We have allowed everything to become about profit margins about not about supplying what people need, or taking care of our own. We have gone down a dangerous path, let's hope we can get things back on track and focus on what really is important. Not profit margins, not corporations, but community, family and taking care of our Nation as a whole.

Some of the report’s key findings include:

31 percent of young workers report being uninsured, up from 24 percent 10 years ago, and 79 percent of the uninsured say they don’t have coverage because they can’t afford it or their employer does not offer it.

Strikingly, one in three young workers are currently living at home with their parents.

Only 31 percent say they make enough money to cover their bills and put some money aside—22 percentage points fewer than in 1999—while 24 percent cannot even pay their monthly bills.

A third cannot pay their bills and seven in 10 do not have enough saved to cover two months of living expenses.
37 percent have put off education or professional development because they can’t afford it.

When asked who is most responsible for the country’s economic woes, close to 50 percent of young workers place the blame on Wall Street and banks or corporate CEOs. And young workers say greed by corporations and CEOs is the factor most to blame for in the current financial downturn.

By a 22-point margin, young workers favor expanding public investment over reducing the budget deficit. Young workers rank conservative economic approaches such as reducing taxes, government spending and regulation on business among the five lowest of 16 long-term priorities for Congress and the president.

Thirty-five percent say they voted for the first time in 2008, and nearly three-quarters now keep tabs on government and public affairs, even when there’s not an election going on.
The majority of young workers and nearly 70 percent of first-time voters are confident that Obama will take the country in the right direction.

Published first on Forward Kansas