employment

• Ezra Klein has "One Flowchart to Rule Them All" - a simple chart effectively explaining health care reform.
• Planet Green has simple directions for making your dorm room green.
• Textbook rentals may finally break the publishing industry's expensive monopoly on text book sales.
• Incredible explanation of how Twitter works in theory.
• Campus Progress says it's time for the internet generation to save itself.
• At Sinclair Community College, the focus is on jobs.
• CIRCLE notes that non-college youth are less likely to volunteer.

• From the White House Blog, Jill Biden extols the virtues of community colleges.
• A new study suggests that Facebook users are getting older.
• Remember the election protection effort Twitter Vote Report? Check out a case study of the project.
• Kal Penn has officially started his White House job.
• ePolitics discusses Iran, Independence Day, and the limits of Online Politics.
• The New York Times covers the latest in summer trends: jobless summers.
• Generation Y reflects on what it means to be American.
• Youth-magnet cities continue to see growth during recession.
• Young Mayors bring fresh perspectives.

We spend a lot of time at FM trying to debunk misconceptions about the Millennial Generation. The news is filled with negative comments and Thomas Friedman alone has made a name for himself among young people as being not just a negative-nancy but pretty much a total hater.

Philip Schwartz wrote an interesting piece in the Business Review where he reviews Bruce Tulgan's new book Not Everyone Gets a Trophy.

"He chalks up many of the supposed problems with Gen Y to youth, normal generational clashes and a general resistance to the change that twentysomethings are bringing to the work force.

Aiming to help managers better understand their youngest employees, Tulgan bases his conclusions on years of research, and at times almost takes a sociologist’s approach to his subject."

Schwartz says these are the same old, tired, exhausted, narratives about Millennial demands in the work-place and says that this book is no different. Tulgan claims Millennials are over-educated and over-idealistic. They make high demands in a corporate atmosphere without having "paid their dues." (I assumed the over-educated and the paycheck to prove it was dues enough... but I digress)

Even so, Tulgan wants to go deeper than these oft-heard complaints. "Generation Y has been much analyzed," he writes, "but, I believe, largely misunderstood. ... Nearly everyone I know is simply reinforcing prevailing misconceptions about Generation Y."

Ok... now we're talking..

"Early in the book, he debunks the millennial myths. Contrary to the popular consensus, Tulgan writes, they’re not disloyal; their loyalty has to be earned. They’re willing to do grunt work; they just want recognition for it, and they won’t do it for vague, long-term promises. And work doesn’t have to be fun; “They want work to be engaging. They want to learn, to be challenged, and to understand the relationship between their work and the overall mission of the organization."

Schwartz does make a complaint that for a book published just a few months ago, there is nothing in it about the troubling economic situations that Millennials in the workforce face today.

Either way, its nice to have a book that, for once, doesn't completely play into the stereo-type that so many before him seem so infatuated with.

The other day I stumbled upon an interesting piece by Ethan Porter and Elon Plotkin at Campus Progress arguing for a new National Youth Administration, a piece of Roosevelt's New Deal in the '30s and '40s.

In 1935, via Executive Order, President Roosevelt created the National Youth Administration to boost their economic prospects. Today, President Obama would be wise to dust off this oft-overlooked item in the New Deal toolbox, and restart the NYA. Under the auspices of the NYA in the 1930s, young people built ballparks and buildings; today, they should build wind turbines and solar panels.

Obviously, much has changed in 70 years, and a reconstituted NYA would have to differ dramatically from Roosevelt’s in order to be successful. But if it incorporated the lessons of the original NYA, and adapted to the contours of the twenty-first century economy, a new NYA could bring youth out of the doldrums and give the whole economy a shot in the arm. Moreover, a new NYA could be the incubator for a life-long productive relationship between government and the youngest generation of workers—who, as part of the “Millennial Generation,” are the largest age cohort in American history.

Porter and Plotkin point out in their introduction that when assessing the economic health of young people today, the situation is no better than it was in the Great Depression. Porter and Plotkin cite Bureau of Labor Statistics and Data from 2008, which shows young workers (16-24 years old) suffered through the largest increase in unemployment when compared with every other age bracket. Furthermore, young people, who make up about fourteen or fifteen percent of the work force, make up one-third of the total number of unemployed Americans -- the same proportion young workers reached during the Depression.

So something absolutely needs to be done. And we're on our way to some improvements. This week President Obama signed the Serve America bill into law, tripling the size of Americorps, and retooling the program to address heretofore unmet needs. By establishing the Healthy Futures Corps, the Veterans Corps, and the Education Corps, the Edward M. Kennedy Serve America Act establishes a new sense of pragmatism in the federal government's service efforts, teaches young Americans new skills, and assists them financially in their college search.

As Porter and Plotkin note though, more is needed. The National Youth Administration would provide more of an economic boon, creating secure jobs for a younger, and therefore more mobile, work force. If a future NYA were to be constructed similar to the way it was seventy years ago, student aid would also be connected to the new jobs. In fact, Porter and Plotkin argue for a program as a part of a new NYA that would "pay the top third of all graduating public high school classes." I'm not sure that this is the most effective way of solving the problem, as I don't trust our education system enough to base such a reward on grades and achievement. Nevertheless, the NYA would provide secure jobs to young people, significantly assist youth in receiving an education, and provide some muscle to spur the construction of important infrastructure, such as T. Boone Pickens' wind corridor in the Midwest, as Porter and Plotkin suggest.

Of course, with such a connection to the New Deal, conservatives would have a fit. This would just be one more sign of socialism seizing American capitalism. (You'd think their passion would prod them to produce their own vision for the country, but of course, they're content saying "no" and offering nothing but pettiness and division.) And so the legislative effort might be difficult. But it would be an opportunity for our organization to shine, and it would give us significant press. It'd serve as an issue that would link young people, the economy, possibly the environment, and education. It'd once again put the GOP on the defensive, forcing them to explain away their inability to support a policy that would be so beneficial to youth. But most importantly, such a program might bring the youth employment numbers out of Great Depression territory, allowing multitudes of young people to get their lives back on track.

The Boston Globe published a piece this weekend covering the spike in the number of college graduates going on to start their careers in public service.

Instead of going straight into a 100-hour-a-week job at an investment bank, they are pursuing less lucrative but potentially more satisfying opportunities in public service, enrolling in record numbers in the Peace Corps, AmeriCorps, and Teach for America. Other students seeking refuge from the recession are flocking to graduate schools, increasing competition for admission.

At elite universities such as Harvard, where about half the graduating class would enter finance and consulting in years past, many students say they feel liberated to consider alternative career paths, crediting not only the tanking economy but also President Obama's call for public service.

What's very alarming is the severe decrease of available jobs to college graduates upon leaving undergraduate institutions. Graduates in Spring '09 will see 21.6% fewer available jobs than the Spring '08 class.

As we see the economy struggle to move forward and the importance of active citizenship increases in society, it's fairly easy to see how Millennials might live out their potential as the next great civic generation.

Employment is tough; the headlines aren't kidding. Newly-minted Ph.D.s are also having trouble putting their long-hard years of erudition to some practical purpose. State universities across the nation are expecting cut-backs and that means hiring fewer professors. A recent NYT article looks at how the economy is affecting young Ph.D.s.

Full-time faculty jobs have not been easy to come by in recent decades, but this year the new crop of Ph.D. candidates is finding the prospects worse than ever. Public universities are bracing for severe cuts as state legislatures grapple with yawning deficits. At the same time, even the wealthiest private colleges have seen their endowments sink and donations slacken since the financial crisis. So a chill has set in at many higher education institutions, where partial or full-fledge hiring freezes have been imposed.

A survey by the American Historical Association, for example, found that the number of history departments recruiting new professors this year is down 15 percent, while the American Mathematical Society’s largest list of job postings has dropped more than 25 percent from last year.

Ph.D.s are a specialized breed. They already recognize that the degree will not bring them more money (go get the M.B.A. for that), but it is supposed to allow them a life-style that allows them to investigate the most narrow topic to their heart's content. But not only is the economy impeding their chances at a job, older professors are staying put, preventing a new crop from joining the ranks.

The anticipated wave of retirements by faculty members who are 60-something is likely to slow as retirement savings accounts and pensions wither, administrators and professors say. That means that some students who have finished postdoctoral fellowships and who expected to leave for faculty positions are staying put for another year, which in turn closes off an option for other graduate students coming up the ladder.

So young graduate students are stuck in between where they are and where they want to go.

“It’s been obvious for some time — witness the unionization movement — that graduate students are caught between the old model of apprentice scholars and the new reality of insecure laborers with uncertain employment prospects,” Mr. Delbanco said. “Among the effects of the financial crisis will clearly be shrinkage both in graduate fellowships and in entry-level academic positions, so the prospects for aspiring Ph.D.’s are getting even bleaker.”

This isn't a good thing for a few reasons. For one, university students are already worried about increases in tuition and they do not need the additional concern about the quality of their education due to fewer professors. And secondly, where will the new American ideas spring from? The American university is one such place that focuses on just that goal--to create original ideas and research about our most pressing and future issues. With young Ph.D.s being shut out from tenure-track positions, their enormous skill set and subject expertise aren't put to the best use. Finally, young Ph.D.s, on account of their age, are better able to understand today's college students and their passions as they try to determine their own path in this world.

• UWIRE is hiring paid progressive and conservative opinion journalists. A great potential job for students who want to write about politics!
• Tech President looks at how Facebook plans on handling privacy concerns and incorporate user feedback into company decisions.
• Wall Stree Journal tries to teach the masses how to twitter.
• Twitter is going corporate as firms take to the 'Tweetable Business Model'.
• Jesse Jenkins wants you to look behind the numbers (and irony) found in most reporting of PowerShift '09.
• Check out another Twitter guide that explains more popular and politically relevant hash (#) tags.
• Kevin Bondelli blogs on the newly-strengthened Arizona Democratic Party and its disregard of young voices.
• Be sure to check out an awesome mini-report on Millennials. It's fascinating not only for content but for the way they embedded graphics and multimedia content into the report.
• Speaker Pelosi thanks Power Shift '09 Conference participants.
  

The Economic Policy Institute released a snapshot today on young people in the workforce. The results were neither encouraging nor unexpected.

This month’s crop of new college graduates will confront a more inhospitable job market than their predecessors faced in 2001, the beginning of the last recession.

In particular, wage and benefit trends show that the labor market for recent college graduates (ages 23-29) was weaker in 2007 than before the last recession in 2001. Inflation-adjusted average hourly wages for young college graduates were $21.09 for men and $18.17 for women in 2007 (Figure A). While the hourly wages for both men and women have ended their steady decline, they have barely risen and are still lower by about $0.60 for women and $1.60 for men than they were six years ago.

EPI's conclusions: With persistent job losses and rising unemployment expected, there is little evidence to suggest that the job market will improve for recent college graduates in the near future.

Yikes!

Update: I forgot the best part - the reason we're like this? Apparently it's all Mr. Roger's fault. Seriously.
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I'm still catching up on stuff that I missed last week, and couldn't let this go by without comment.

On Sunday, 60 Minutes ran a program about Millennials in the work force that was just about as bad as could be. Reported by Morley Safer, a man who probably could have served in the Korean War, the program's findings, in short, run something like this: Millennials are narcissistic whiners who need to be coddled and don't understand the value of a hard days work.

Here are just a few choice quotes from the report, and why they are so incredibly one-sided and out of touch with reality.

Faced with new employees who want to roll into work with their iPods and flip flops around noon, but still be CEO by Friday, companies are realizing that the era of the buttoned down exec happy to have a job is as dead as the three-Martini lunch.

It's not immediately obvious when reading that quote, but the entire tone of the piece is that this is a very very bad development. That disapproval reveals a shocking lack of recognition on the part of Safer and 60 Minutes to today's work environment. Why should Millennials be loyal to a company when the corporate world no longer responds in kind by providing the security it did for our parents generation? Fewer and fewer employers provide health care, without which there can be no financial or personal security. We watched as thousands of our parent's generation lost their retirement funds to corporate accounting scandals. Why would we ever give our loyalty to such a dishonest and miserly master?

If Boomers (or Silent Generation) execs and media are upset about our view of the corporate world, they have no one to blame but themselves.

"They have climbed Mount Everest. They've been down to Machu Picchu to help excavate it. But they've never punched a time clock. They have no idea what it's like to actually be in an office at nine o'clock, with people handing them work.

Really? No young person out there born after 1978 has ever punched a clock? Worked an honest day's labor? Personally, I sure remember lugging around a bag of golf clubs for rich Boomers to finance my summer vacations and even accumulate spending money for school. I'm willing to bet there are a whole lot of folks who worked (and continue to work) hard just to pay tuition or support their young families. So this isn't even about the work habits of young people. It's about those of an economically elite subset of young people, with whom this report is concerned. Those who go to Harvard or other top tier colleges (and accumulate mountains of debt in the process, natch).

Today more than half of college seniors move home after graduation. It's a safety net, or safety diaper, that allows many kids to quickly opt out of a job they don't like.

"There once was, if not shame, a little certain uneasiness about being seen to be living at home in your mid 20s, yes?" Safer asks Mary Crane.

"Not only is there no shame with it, but this is thought to be a very smart, wise, economic decision," Crane says.

Yeah, it is an economic decision if you want to be competitive. Thanks to mismanagement of the economy, government subsidies to corporate lenders, and a steady rise in tuition prices (far outpacing inflation), most people graduate college with at least $20,000 in debt, a burden that most Boomers did not have when they finished college (indeed, one could still reasonably expect to do well without a college degree back when Boomers were young). Of course our habits and views are different, we face an entirely different economic reality than our parents did. That's not narcissistic, or the result of over-coddling, it is a rational response to our economic situation.

All of which has led, as you'd expect, to a whole new industry -- or epidemic -- of consultants, experts they allege, in how to motivate, train and, yes, sometimes nanny the extraterrestrials who've taken over the workplace.

Extraterrestrials? How about your children? This is really the crux of it. This piece isn't about Millennials at all, it's really about Boomer discomfort in a changing workforce that they created. It's a psychic cleansing of their own discomfort at facing what are natural responses and adaptations to their own excesses. In point of fact, there are only two Millennials in the entire piece, and they are used as a prop to support the Safer's thesis. Poor poor reporting on the whole from 60 Minutes, perhaps they should turn an equally critical eye towards their own work ethic.

• A few weeks ago I wrote an essay that barely scratched the surface of the role of race in youth politics. This essay on multi-racial and "anti-racial" youth coalitions digs a little deeper. This has also been a hot topic at MyDD lately.
• Check out this piece about some post-doc research at Georgetown on the role of New Media in campaigns. I think the study director overplays the role of Mobile media and podcasts. I think we're still a few years away from those mediums really taking off and having the impact that something like YouTube or socical networks will have in this cycle. But she really hits an important nail on the head at the end of the piece:
  

  "I want to look at places that are not designed to be political, but politics take place there. If you just look at candidate Web sites, you just see a limited amount of political action," she said. "But when you go to other sites like sports talk boards, you see a lot of political commentary and engagement."

  Bingo. That's the key, and its the piece that everyone seems to be overlooking (or at least not explicitly talking about) in all the discussions about new media, online outreach, and social networking. If you think about the campaign as a series of concentric circles, the campaign is the hub and social networks, YouTube, etc are the first layer of "new media" circles.

  That's as far as anyone is really taking it, but the whole point is that those first circles expand into other circles - smaller MySpace and FaceBook groups, groups on other, less popular social networks, online discussion boards, etc. Each step out gets less political in its main purpose, but it's these periphery locations and the ability to move political conversations into them that will be the key to really tapping the full power of "New Media."

• Finally, the Economic Policy Institute reports that 6 years after the 2001 recession, real wages and employment rates for recent college grads have still not returned to normal levels. Graphs after the jump.