young workers

Kids these days... with the Occupy protests ... and the technology and what's with the hair and music?? Is anyone else sick of hearing all of the negative commentary about what our generation does wrong as perceived by older generations?

Gotta love Brazen Life's characterization of this survey as an "Epic Fail."

Nearly 70 percent of survey respondents think Millennials are lazy and uninterested in their jobs. What’s more, 55 percent of Millennials agree.

Yeesh. Rough stuff. Without question, Millennial power and influence grows every day in the professional sphere. But if we view the Workplace Options survey as a progress report on our generation, we still have plenty to learn about life in an office.

It should come as no surprise that we rub our superiors the wrong way. We were raised to chase our dreams, eschew the age-old climb up the corporate ladder, live with an independent streak and rely on finely-tuned tech skills to fix problems 100 times faster than our parents.

*Sigh. So, here's the thing about the survey (yes I'm about to pick it apart). Only 41% of respondents work regularly with Millennials. So less than half actually have experience working with people in our generation to begin with. Of that 41% - 68% believe Millennials are "less motivated."

So, realistically what's happening here is less than half of the people who already have a negative attitude carry on with that negative attitude toward Millennials by saying they're not motivated to take on responsibility and produce quality work. But then when asked if they felt like managers needed to interact more frequently with Millennials to increase engagement, only 36% said yes. So, they think we're not motivated, but they themselves aren't interested enough to fix it. THAT doesn't bode well for your own motivation, now, does it? Hello pot... this is kettle.

A little less than half believe Millennials are loyal to their workplace. But, I wonder how many people in America feel like their workplaces are loyal to them... particularly on say... Wall Street or at a multinational corporation. The survey goes on to say that a majority believe that aggressive atmospheres and aggressive approaches aren't successful and more passive approaches are better as are more "agreeable" workers. Is it possible then, that the negative attitudes from this audience might come from more aggressive approaches from Millennial workers? Or maybe even the resistance of Millennials to be a "yes man." We don't know... because the survey doesn't ask.

Also I discovered this survey was a phone survey where you "press one for yes" etc. And chances are that comes from land line calls. So already you're targeting a very specific audience. And of those surveyed - only 7% were 18-29 year olds. So when you talk about 55% of Millennials that agree that we're "lazy and uninterested" you're only talking about half of the 7% of survey respondents who are Millennials.

The Epic Fail is more about the survey itself. It could have been done better, and there should have been deeper questions that get to the root of these attitudes.

Happy things:

• 78% believe Millennials are more tech savvy
• of those 78% it turns out 70% of people think that's an advantage in the work place.

Crossposted from the EMILY's List Blog.

The State of Young America tells us that the issues plaguing young Americans aren't just bad. They're abysmal. The research project released by DEMOS, details a frightening glimpse into the lives of 18-34 year olds trying to start a life and start a family, particularly young women.

One discouraging fact from the data (page 53): just 11% of all workers had access to paid family leave. When it comes to young women and young families having their first child, a lack of paid family leave can be devastating, and leave new parents no choice but to get back to work right away. Not surprisingly, access to paid family leave depends on job level. If you’ve got the swanky Wall Street job you probably have a greater chance of having paid family leave (17%), where lower wage earners, like those at entry level jobs had a heck of a lot less possibility of paid family leave (5%).

When it comes to child care, you're looking at one of the largest expenses a family often has. Moms already know this, but according to the data, "center-based child care fees for two children (an infant and a 4-year-old) exceeded annual median rent payments in every state" (page 55). And this isn’t just in places like New York City – child care costs for 2 children is more than average rent in all 50 states.

One young mom said, "the lack of affordable child care in California is the main reason my husband had to quit his well-paying full time job. The monthly rate of $900 a month per child for each of our 4 kids exceeded his take home pay. We decided that it didn't make sense for us both to work." More and more children are being cared for by ad-hoc child care arrangements, grandparents or other relatives, or stay at home dads.

We've seen the President take an important step to help many young working Americans, and we must focus on helping young women and families. High child care costs, low wages, and no paid family leave, are all issues women have had for generations. And in a tough economy they don't get better; they get worse.

NYC activists are specifically paralleling the 'Walkerville' action being taken by student and community activists in Wisconsin.

FM friend Harry Waisbren asked UW-Madison student leader Max Love about it, and after hearing his genuine excitement about the national impact Wisconsin activists are having (extending to the tactics themselves), Harry posted the following--including this quote from him:

It's clear the passion and perseverance generated by the union protests in Wisconsin (affectionately known as #wiunion and now #walkerville) has spread to an entire generation. No longer will working and middle class Americans stand by as we are attacked; we won't stand, but we will sleep. The inspiration of the Arab Spring, and now of New Yorkers and Wisconsinites will spread like wildfire until we can be assured every citizen of the world has a shot at a decent lifestyle

Here are more of Harry's interviews
Emily Turonis (one of the lead organizers):

Lucas Vasquez (high school student):

Some people bring you the news - others share the news - Future Majority brings you what's really going on with our generation and why it matters. Think about sharing on your Facebook or Tweeting it.

• The economy is so bad that Lawyers settle for temp jobs. I've actually been hearing about this from friends graduating from law schools and from older folks who are working at firms. Firms just don't have the money to hire new law school grads. They'll take them for internships but they can't afford the expense for new council.
• That said - you can still go hang out with some fun people. On behalf of Van Jones, you are cordially invited to the launch of Rebuild The Dream!
• OK this isn't entirely youthy but it's kinda a BFD. These people have been going after bloggers and websites who quote content from news pieces and claim that it's copyright infringement. Here's the thing, we bring you a lot of information, always cite it, and comment on it. They say this is illegal. But a judge says BS and they should just die a slow death (legally speaking). Judge to Copyright troll: your lawsuits are shams, give it up
• Workers in the European Union say that unpaid internships are bad. So now there's a nice Unpaid internships bill in EU gains momentum
• Well this is cool and super nice of them! Wish there were more people out there doing this! I know our generation could use it. If you live in the Chicago area - jump on the opportunity! New Naperville company helps college students find jobs
• I'm so excited CBS noticed: College Costs soar, and wages cover less of the tab
  One problem is this:

  "If you have any doubt about the value of a college degree, just look at the employment numbers. Overall unemployment is at 9.1 percent, but among college graduates, it's just 4.5 percent."

  These are "general numbers" and doesn't splice out 18-29 year olds - this stat is for all generations and all ages. Despite this story being about young people the numbers aren't the unemployment numbers for young people which are nearly double what CBS cites.
  

  The most important part of this piece is this:

  "In 1980, a 10-week summer job at minimum wage meant a teenager could save up about half of the cost of a year's tuition at a public university. Today, that same minimum wage job covers only 18 percent."

  With increases in costs running rampant wages haven't kept up which makes our society and our economy out of balance. This will be the broken leg our generation will be forced to stand on for years to come.

• Paying off student loan debt through job opportunities - should students seek out employment that allows repayment and forgiveness
• The decline but not fall of hierarchy - what young people really want. Oddly enough this feature in Forbes doesn't include the answer to "what young people want" as being "jobs, health care, affordable education." But rather... social media access.... Ok ok its true yes we want that too but I think that comes behind the big three at the top....
  

  "having grown up engaging in dialogue with prominent commentators, journalists, and politicians, Generation Y wants the same at work and large companies have now incorporated social media platforms across their organizations..."

• Debt ignores young people's concerns
• Why young people were more interested to work in Australia?
• As Economy Further impacts young people "Generation opportunity" takes flight
• MAINE GOP not alone in trying to lower voter turnout
• Congrats to the AWESOME 2011 40 leaders under 40 from the NLC
• Recession Grads: Judggling a tough job market and student loans
• Revolutionizing student loans in poverty-stricken countries
• Class-action law suit alleges fraud at Henrico for profit school
• Teachers may lose raises for masters degrees. Typically people who have masters degrees would go into teaching positions if they got a bump in pay for their advanced degree. Because the economy is so tough and funding for schools is being cut - those students who are getting their advanced degree while waiting out the economic crisis/downfall/depression might not be able to make the same extra bank if they "fall back" on a teaching gig.

The Economic Policy Institute has released a new briefing paper entitled "The Kids Aren't Alright: A Labor Market Analysis of Young Workers." (Seriously though, that Kids Aren't Alright line is getting way overused). Despite the uninspired title, there is a lot of interesting information in this analysis.

Young adults have faced the highest unemployment rate on record (since 1948) with workers 16 to 24 peaking at 19.2% last September. Especially interesting is the sub-demographic breakdown:

The difference between male and female unemployment rates for 16-24 year olds started 2010 at 7.5 percentage points; young men have a rate for 22.5% and young women 15.0%. This is the largest gap between men and women in any age group—the difference for 25-54 year olds is 1.7 points, and for workers 55 and older it is 1.4 points. The disparities between the unemployment rates of white, black, and Hispanic young workers are also stark. Black 16-24 year-old workers had the highest rate, starting 2010 at 32.5%, followed by Hispanics (24.2%), and then whites (15.2%). However, it is 16-24 year-old Hispanics workers who saw the largest increase in
unemployment (13.2 percentage points), compared to their black (10.7 percentage points) or white (8.2 percentage points) counterparts.

I would like to see further study at some point as to why the sub-demographic differences are so dramatically starker with young workers than other age groups. This has serious consequences:

Because rates of unemployment for minorities have risen faster than for whites, the recession has exacerbated existing racial disparities among young adult workers.

The report reveals other significant statistics:

• One in every four unemployed persons in America is under
  the age of 25.
• Half of unemployed young workers have been unemployed for more than 15 weeks.
• If all those young workers who left the labor market (and have stopped looking for work) were counted as unemployed, the unemployment rate for 16-24-year-old workers would be 23.9%.

The analysis portrays a dark image of the youth employment environment, with young workers left behind as older Americans come out of retirement to rejoin the workforce. The 10 page report is worth a read and should cause us to seriously look at unemployment from a youth lens.

I'm still working to cut and post videos from the Better Deal conference this weekend but I had tickets to U2 on Sunday so that might explain the delay... The following is a video of Liz Shuler, Secretary-Treasurer newly elected Secretary Treasurer of the AFL-CIO who is one of the youngest and also the first woman ever elected at such a high level.

One of the conversations I had with Kevin this past weekend was about unique ways in which Labor Unions are working to incorporate their members into existing youth movements and how they too can do specific outreach to their young members. Young Democrats of America has a vibrant labor representation in their executive committee and they are doing outreach to many national unions to help facilitate alliances.

Laborers 1290 out of Kansas City is doing the same thing. A good friend developed and manages their online strategy used to communicate to young people what unions do, how they can help, and what they mean to our history. With so many young people working in skills and trade jobs today, there is a natural outreach mechanism that should be built to our friends in the unions.

Enjoy her speech.

Kelly Jacobsen is a young college student at Washburn University who has worked as staff on several campaigns and spoken at a Congressional press conference about the College Cost Reduction Act in 2007. We are grateful to promote her work here on FM. --Sarah

As a college freshman, I am often thankful I have several years before I will begin the difficult process of finding a job. But with massive company layoffs dominating the daily news, it is hard for me not to worry about whether or not my peers and I will be able to find jobs stable enough to support our families.

Proponents of the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA) recognize the current, daunting state of the economy and are striving to lend a helping hand to the American worker.

This piece of legislation, which was recently introduced in Congress, would give workers the freedom to decide for themselves to join a union, rather than facing company roadblocks. By forming a union, workers would then be allowed to bargain for better benefits, wages, and working conditions.

One goal of the EFCA is to level the playing field for all workers and prevent salary increases from strictly benefiting company CEOs.

“Despite our national economy, the production of American workers is up,” said Andy Sanchez, Secretary-Treasurer for the Kansas State AFL-CIO. “Each year American workers improve upon their production, yet they are left behind as the companies profits have grown by leaps and bounds. One needs to only look at what CEO salaries have increased by to realize something is out of whack.”

For young people, the benefits of joining a union are very promising. A 2008 report by the Center for Economic and Policy Research (CEPR) entitled “Unions and Upward Mobility for Young People” found that young union workers (ages 18-29) earned 12.4% more, on average, than their non-unionized counterparts.

The report also found that young union members are 17% more likely to have employer-provided health insurance and 24% more likely to have an employer-provided pension plan.

"Unions make a big difference for younger workers," said John Schmitt, a Senior Economist at CEPR and the author of the study. "There is no economic theory that says young people have to be poorly paid or go without benefits."

It is no secret that our country is experiencing a very trying time. While I am confident in our new President’s ability to navigate us back to a strong economy, I am fully expecting the process to be very exhausting. By allowing workers to choose to unionize, we can strengthen America’s middle class and create strong jobs for our communities.

“The middle class is what built this country and it is what continues to maintain America's prosperity,” Sanchez said. “It is also what will get us through this rough time.”

According the AFL-CIO, 60 million American workers who are not union members would opt to form a union tomorrow if given the chance. Please contact your representatives in Congress to encourage them to support the Employee Free Choice Act and give these workers the choice on whether or not to form a union. By doing so, you will be taking action to assure that all Americans get a fair share in the work place.

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.