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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsHighly educated, unemployed and tumbling down (the ladder)
http://www.usatoday.com/story/money/personalfinance/2014/10/19/cnbc-overeducated-underemployed/17390047/half of the long-term unemployed in a Rutgers survey published last month estimate it will take up to a decade to rebuild their finances. More than 20% say it will take more than a decade, or that they'll never recover. The highly educated are "actually in worse shape because they had farther to fall and had greater financial liability," Van Horn said.
42 and living with roomates
"I've had to seriously downgrade my living situation," said Alex Gomez, a 42-year-old with a master's degree in entrepreneurship. Gomez lost his last full-time job in 2009 and has been looking for work since a short-term contract position ended in 2012.
Gomez's home was foreclosed on, so the Tampa resident lives with three roommates in a college neighborhood. He drained his 401(k) trying to save his house, and he has around $150,000 in student loans. His mother is tapping her 401(k) to pay his rent. Gomez subsists on that and about $200 a month in food stamps.
"I have been applying and looking for pretty much anything at this stage," he said. Although he's looking for work in engineering or data management, "I applied to a supermarket as a deli clerk because I used to be a deli clerk as a teenager," he said. He was told he was overqualified and turned down.
In a survey of 800 jobless professionals conducted by the Institute for Career Transitions, about 10% of the short-term unemployed had doctoral, law or MBA degrees. Among the pool of long-term unemployed, more than 18% held such degrees.
frazzled
(18,402 posts)is it? It seems to be to be a risk-taking venture, and very few who dip their toes into that area are going to succeed. Launching a business venture (especially a tech one) is pretty risky business, and nobody is going to pay you a salary while you're doing it. I'd actually never heard of a masters of entrepreneurship, so I looked it up. It does exist, but I'm a little leery of the use of such programs. Even at the University of Michigan, this is a one-year program, and I bet it's super expensive. Is it worth it? I feel bad for this guy, but I'm not sure this is an example that is widely applicable or useful for drawing too many conclusions.
In terms of 10% of the short-term unemployed having advanced degrees, that really isn't a clear issue either: short-term unemployed can include people who take three or four months to find a new position. My son got a Ph.D. last year and it took him nine months or so to land a job he wanted in a place he wanted, but to be frank, he was somewhat changing fields, so it wasn't surprising that it was a bit difficult. He's well ensconced now, and had no student debt. Graduate students in academic disciplines generally don't pay tuition: if you're good enough to get in, the university covers the cost of the education and usually a stipend; though not much, it's enough to live cheaply on for four years or so.
Older workers who lose (or leave) their jobs have always had a difficult time being hired, going way back. This is a huge problem, and we really need to address it in terms of age discrimination.
That still leaves us with the reality that issues like technology and outsourcing, and yes, even loss of retail sales to the Internet, have led to a dearth of good-paying jobs for the middle class, even now those with a basic college degree. (And really, don't get a law degree: there are truly very few jobs there.) This didn't happen overnight. It's been happening for the past 35 years or so. We need to find the path into a new sustainable economy. Believe me, Amazon is not it.
haele
(12,635 posts)An entrepreneur can be someone with a plumbing license who buys his or her own truck and advertising, and sets out to start their own business, or a hobbyist who sells on Etsy and at farmer's markets, and is now making enough they think can quit their day job, an inventor with an engineering background developing and selling patents, or it could be someone who starts up an internet company or consultancy firm.
It's not quite the same as starting up a family business that is supposed to be sustainable over the long run, as an entrepreneur considers their work more of an investment business where the lifespan is usually only as long as he or she remains interested in it or can maintain it. Most entrepreneurs come from a worker's background and are starting their business up after a windfall or accumulation of savings and experience in the work that business will provide, so there's usually a "seed" of money that can be leveraged into starting up the business. However, interest and maintenance of the business is usually why most entrepreneurs typically don't remain in business for more that five to ten years.
Just a background. It isn't really a dirty word, it's just the politician's word de jour for a start-up business person.
Haele
chrisa
(4,524 posts)If creating a business is likely to cause someone to lose everything, who is going to create a business? Where will the creativity come from? The new ideas? The fresh business models and innovation?
Sadly, the more we favor huge corporations over small business, the more unstable and stagnant our economy becomes. Not saying that large corporations don't help the economy, but compared to small businesses, they help a lot less.
Failing as a business owner shouldn't be a fatal mistake that ruins the rest of your life. That's one of the major problems in the US today.
jtuck004
(15,882 posts)wherein the owner of the assets makes business decisions based on the fact that the mule costs them more to replace than the worker? That's how it was with Mother Jones in 1921 and nothing has changed for people who live for "a job".
Well, except today you are worth more than the mule if you can keep paying fees of various sorts, maybe even after you go to your particular grave.
Frankly, I don't understand why only .001% of our population is taught that they should own the assets, be the entrepreneurs, and the rest are taught that it is safer to be an employee. (There is absolutely no reason they cannot all be owners, except that believing otherwise gives some people a license to steal, among other dubious benefits.)
The first makes $500,000 a minute according to a recent report, the rest make varying amounts, with a few doing well, and the rest sharing bupkis.
It's gonna be great, by and by, if they just work hard, none of that risky stepping off the plantation stuff. While someone else profits.
That's just pie in the sky
The ironic thing is that the .001% don't produce anything the rest aren't fully capable of doing, if first they haven't been trained to do otherwise. The .001% has nothing except what other's worked for. If the rest ever figure this out, they are certainly capable of walking away and doing something else, instead of waiting, hopelessly, for the return of what was theirs in the first place.
Such a poisonous atmosphere allows criminals to flourish - and I am speaking specifically of thieving banksters, other rentiers, and their lap dogs - criminals who are likely more of a danger to this country than any terrorist has ever dreamed in their wildest nightmares.
Yeah, entrepreneur isn't really a job. But owning and operating the assets shouldn't be seen as anything most people aren't capable of either, unless one wants them in servitude.
Respectfully,
smirkymonkey
(63,221 posts)This is only going to get worse.
MarianJack
(10,237 posts)Tomorrow I'll be getting fingerprinted so I can be a substitute teacher in my town. My wife and I are also being licensed as foster parents so we can take in teens who are working on a set of goals to reunify with their families. My wife and I have agreed that the fostering will be my full time job. The reimbursement for the program is nice.
So I am now "semiretired" at 59 with a Masters Degree...Yikes!!!
PEACE!
AwakeAtLast
(14,120 posts)I am a teacher. If you need any help or advice, shoot me a PM anytime. Good luck!
MarianJack
(10,237 posts)I am a former teacher, but I'll keep your offer in mind!
PEACE!
AwakeAtLast
(14,120 posts)Sometimes that's all a Sub needs!
jtuck004
(15,882 posts)By dropping better educated people into the abyss. And their children. Most for a lifetime. (Don't worry, there are plenty of excuses.)
Here. Dear reader, just an fyi - that is 2012, and there is more current data. It isn't any better.
That's somethin', eh? Not like those who came before us, building all those silly roads, bridges, schools, hospitals...
Now our hands are busy with more important things, like French fries and bedpans and endless war.