Horrible youth jobs numbers

**Posted by Phineas

ST and I both earlier referred to the awful August jobs report released today. For a detailed (and dismal) analysis, James PethokoukisΒ  is a must-read.

But I want to highlight one particular aspect (via Gay Patriot) reported on by Jordan Weissman in The Atlantic: the employment prospects for teens and those just graduating college are just horrific:

After declining for most of the summer, the unemployment rate for workers between the ages of 16 and 19 popped up again, rising from 23.8 percent to 24.6 percent. Among 20-to-24 year olds, it hopped to 13.9 percent from 13.5 percent in July.

After noting that these number don’t reflect layoffs as much as lower-than-expected hiring at the end of summer, he comes up with aΒ  disturbing theory:

There are other subtle and discouraging aspects of this report for the young. One of the only industries to add significant numbers of workers was food services, which accounted for 28,300 of the 95,000 total new jobs. Restaurant and fast food work is usually a bastion for teenage employment. If that sector is growing, and young people still can’t find employment, it may mean that older workers are now out-competing them for low wage jobs.

In other words, skilled workers laid off from higher-paying jobs are now taking the entry-level positions young people use to learn the basic skills of “how to have a job.” And, as time passes and the economy doesn’t pick up (which will be almost assured in an Obama second term), they’ll find themselves competing with teens and college graduates who come after them.

It’s like Paul Ryan said in his RNC nomination acceptance speech:

College graduates should not have to live out their 20s in their childhood bedrooms, staring up at fading Obama posters and wondering when they can move out and get going with life.Β 

In 2008, Barack Obama captured two-thirds of the youth vote, a huge amount.

Some reward they got, isn’t it?

(Crossposted at Public Secrets)

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