1 in 2 new graduates are jobless or underemployed that is Freakin 50%

[lovuian]

http://news.yahoo.com/1-2-graduates-jobless-underemployed-140300522.html

WASHINGTON (AP) — The college class of 2012 is in for a rude welcome to the world of work.

A weak labor market already has left half of young college graduates either jobless or underemployed in positions that don't fully use their skills and knowledge.

Young adults with bachelor's degrees are increasingly scraping by in lower-wage jobs — waiter or waitress, bartender, retail clerk or receptionist, for example — and that's confounding their hopes a degree would pay off despite higher tuition and mounting student loans.


This is a very dangerous situation ....Highly educated people
out of a job just because 1% need to be rich

[xchrom]

1. du rec. nt

[REACTIVATED IN CT]

2. and they are deep in debt with student loans............................

[AnotherMcIntosh]

26. And now, of course, student debt is not dischargeable in bankruptcy.

Thanks to all those who voted for that.

[dkf]

3. Lack of medical insurance and retirement funds keeps people working.

I'm not sure the economy was meant to be able to employ all adults between 17 and 65. Too many people.

[hack89]

4. "College graduates who majored in zoology, anthropology, philosophy, art history and humanities " ..

were among the least likely to find jobs appropriate to their education level." No big surprise there.

Happiest day of my life when my daughter told me she wanted to study math and biology in college.

[Bladian]

6. Thank god I'm going to law school.

People always need lawyers!

[slackmaster]

7. They need GOOD lawyers

My mom often says that one out of three lawyers graduated in the bottom third of a law scool class.

The best of luck to you.

[Bladian]

9. Thank you.

I like to fancy myself as being logical enough to be a good one. I mean, we'll see, I suppose. I still have two years left before I can go to law school.

[Leftist Agitator]

21. Law School is INSANELY expensive...

On the order of $100,000 plus.

For example:

http://www.law.pitt.edu/resources/tuition/costs

About $150,000 if you aren't a PA resident. Down the road at WVU, in-state tuition and living expenses are about $90,000, and that's about as cheap as one will find for a J.D.

And few attorneys make six figure salaries even five years out, if they're even working in law despite their J.D. If you didn't go to a top tier law school, and/or weren't in the top quintile of your class, you can forget about making really good money early in your career.

I know many people who have gone to law school, and ended up regretting it.

And as someone who personally has six figures worth of student loan debt, I urge you to very carefully consider the costs associated with incurring that amount of debt versus what may prove to be illusory benefits.

[alcibiades_mystery]

24. Don't fuck up your first year, baby

I've seen plenty of law school grads redacting documents in the basement of big NY firms for temp dollars. Their story is always the same: bottom third my first year.

Good luck to ya. Getting in is the easy part.

[former9thward]

25. Please think twice, three times, four times about going.

The legal profession is filled with unemployment or under employment right now and it is going to get worse. Firms are off shoring routine legal matters like doc review to India. In addition with the age of the internet and software people use those to do all sorts of things lawyers used to do. In addition you have all sorts of companies who prepare routine legal documents using non lawyers.

Law schools don't tell you any of this. In fact they lie to their students about prospective employment opportunities. Google that and you will find all sorts of lawsuits against law schools who lied about how many of their students were employed or employed in the legal profession after graduation. Law school is very expensive so unless you are independently wealthy you may end up with a lot of debt and little job prospects.

[AnotherMcIntosh]

27. Then here's some advice. Free, of course.

1. To guarantee that you can immediately gain admission to the bar upon graduation without taking a bar exam in a state which makes an effort to protect the economic future of its attorneys, consider Marquette University Law School or the University of Wisconsin Law School, both in Wisconsin. Wisconsin recognizes a diploma privilege for those two schools.

Even if you don't want to practice in Wisconsin forever, if you put in a few years, you can then transfer to many states which admit out-of-state attorneys on motion. Of course, if you've studied sufficiently with respect to how to take bar exams, you could even take a bar exam in your home state if you are from a state other than Wisconsin.

2. Get involved with politics even if you don't want to be a politician. You need to know how to fake sincerity. The politicians are the best. Some, of course, are better than others.

It also helps to have contacts regardless of whether you want to maximize your opportunity to get clients or if you want to help someone get out of trouble (including yourself, if necessary).

3. I'm sorry to say it, but a lot of the law business is just show business. If you go into a law office that has law books on obvious display, you might also notice that a lot of those law books look like they have never been opened. The books, the print-outs from online legal research, etc., are for many attorneys - including some of the highest paid ones - just props.

When you get into the business of practicing law, your business will be to produce paper. Under ideal conditions, you will produce a lot of billing statements. At other times, you will be recycling language from memorandums, wills, trusts, deeds, or whatever concerns your clients. Origional thinking is generally not required. A good smile, however, is.

4. To get the most amount of money, you need to be a clock watcher with an imagination. There may still be attorneys who don't double-bill or triple-bill for the time that they have actually spent on clients' cases, but those are the honest ones. An attorney who charges $300 an hour for 10 minutes of actual work is making $1,800 an hour. If the attorney claims that two hours were involved, he or she just doubled the actual hourly rate to $3,600 an hour.

5. You might ask, "How do you get clients that will pay that?" For one thing, you can go into the divorce business. It's easy as long as you have a license. I don't recommend this if you are basically a humane person and want to sleep at night. But if you don't mind following the lead of some attorneys, tell a client that you charge $300 and hour and that you need a $2,000 retainer. Watch the client. If they don't flinch, you can waste some time going back and forth to court for minor appearances which don't actually move the case forward, then tell them that you need more money for the retainer. You can take one, two, or more years with a minor case. With a little bit of practice, you can suck $10,000 out of someone's bank account without too much trouble. Of course, always blame the other attorney for all the delays and meaningless court appearances. Don't feel guilty about this. In his office, he'll be returning the favor.

6. Learn some lawyer and judge jokes.

E.g., What do your call an honest judge in Chicago?

Answer: A tourist.


Good luck to you.

[REACTIVATED IN CT]

31. Thanks - this info about the diploma prvilege is very interesting

My son is in a paralegal certificate program in Indiana and has hopes of going on to law school.

I've heard that many law school grads are applying for paralegal jobs because there are so many law schoolgrads aplying for 1st year associate positions. I have a friend whose daughter is graduating law school this year and I know from her that the job market stinks.

It is all about supply and demand. When word got out about starting salaries of over $100,000 a year at the big NY firms everyone went to law school. Now the market is flooded.

[AnotherMcIntosh]

35. IMHO, the great push to go to law school occurred in the early 1970's.

The upswing in law school enrollments in the early 1970's appears to have coincided when those subject to the draft finished college and needed additional education to continue to have deferments. Those who wanted to continue to have such deferments but who could not qualify for medical schools, could go for masters or J.D.s. J.D.s, of course, take longer.

IMO, your son's chances of obtaining employment as a paralegal will be better if he doesn't mention an ambition to go to law school.

You're right that many law school grads are applying for paralegal jobs. But attorneys are inherently an arrogant bunch. What attorney wants to hire someone for a subordinant position when there is a high probability that the person being considered will think of himself as an equal instead of a subordinate? Given a choice, law firms hire those who will know their place.

[MadHound]

28. Hate to tell you this, but more and more legal work is being outsourced to India

The legal profession isn't as protected as you would like to think.

[slackmaster]

5. BTDT, got the T-shirt

Unemployed for 7 months, underpaid for 16 years.

The good news is that I had no debt (worked my way through school) and had no big health problems.

I got my BA in 1980.

[lovuian]

8. My advice look in other countries

Canada Australia Japan South Africa
We are going to see massive Brain Drain

We need to Hire these young people or they will be educated poverty that is what revolutions are built on
and maybe that is what we will be seeing

They are the Occupy Movement

[NYC_SKP]

10. College sucks, we've all been sold a bill of goods. I'm fighting it.

College is great for many, and maybe even for every person it can be said that there is an appropriate post-secondary educational program that will work for them.

But this BULLSHIT IDEA THAT YOUR KID IS A FAILURE IF THEY DON'T GO RIGHT INTO FUCKING COLLEGE AFTER HIGH SCHOOL...

Is going to ruin more lives than we realize.

It already is.

Let kids work, try part time community college, learn to live, be self-supportive, work with their hands, develop people skills.

I swear our country has it's head up it's ass.

Thanks it, rant off.

[bluesbassman]

11. "The counselor's main advice: Pursue further education."

Here's one of the main problems from my POV. Most of these colleges are treating themselves as a "for profit" enterprise. To let some 18yr old sign up for a creative writing degree because they have no clue what they really want to do, then after they graduate (with big $$ in loans racked up) tell them they need to continue their education (more $$) just to be employable is ridiculous.

The colleges are not preparing the majority of our young people for the future.

[NYC_SKP]

12. Zactly'- looks just like another corporate scam. And High Schools Lining up to Serve Them....

NCLB and RTTT programs that tell public high schools that they have to create college bound kids.

Fuck that shit, create human beings with curiosity and people skills, not drones who only understand compliance and obedience.

I'm fighting it from withing but am surrounded by publicly funded programs that beat the joy out of kids from an increasingly young age.

Now there are specific and very daunting standards for pre-schoolers and kindergarten kids.

Give me a fucking break!

[lovuian]

18. Out Sourcing jobs to India Mexico and Vietnam

Outsourcing
jobs


even Nursing
has seen Nurses brought here from other countries
Medical Doctors come here from other countries

[Joe Shlabotnik]

23. The system is broken

The bar keeps getting raised, and the goal posts keeps moving. This is an obscured form of Austerity.

I can't believe sometimes that my 2 grandfathers got good paying jobs at GM when they could barely speak or write English, that my dad and father in law got good paying jobs at GM when they were high school drop outs. At 40 I'm a college grad and unemployed. I can't even fathom what my nieces and nephews are in for. The only thing that seems likely is to expect less and less, all for more effort and expense, and at the cost of actually being able to live deliberately, independently and blossom as well adjusted individuals.

[cyglet]

29. This has always bothered me

and they find it easy to speak in platitudes about these things.

[TBF]

32. The "system" is working exactly as designed -

the "middle class" was a 50-yr at best blip on the radar screen. Think of it as a social experiment. The wealthy obviously didn't like sharing so we are back to the 1920s now and falling fast.

[Nikia]

30. He would probably be better off getting a Master's in something more vocational

Unless he wants to teach. If he just wants to get better at writing, writing groups or non credit seminars are workshops might be a better investment.
Many writing careers, other than journalism, are related to marketing or technical communications. He could look into advanced degrees in those fields.
For science based jobs, data shows that advanced degrees really do increase your employability and income. Two of my coworkers at my new job have Master's degrees and are employed as entry level lab techs. From what I have heard though, many like them might not have science based jobs at all if not for their graduate degrees. Most jobs for entry level lab techs go to people who already have experience. Maybe there are some areas of the country where newly B.S. graduates get jobs in science, but not around here.

[SheilaT]

13. While the college counselors and the colleges themselves

need to take some of the blame, it's hardly breaking news that a lot of degrees that are interesting to pursue don't lead to a job. Students and parents really need to be realistic from the very beginning about the entire point of education after high school.

All schools have a career office or whatever they choose to call it, and the people who staff them rarely see a student before spring of senior year. Those good people have all sorts of excellent information about the job prospects for various majors, and they can sometimes do placement.

And it's likewise no secret that the community colleges are chock-full of very practical certificate and degree programs that lead to decent jobs.

[customerserviceguy]

14. Aren't most recent graduates underemployed?

It takes some time in a scut job before you really get to use your training in most fields, doesn't it? I mean, not just now, but isn't that a normal condition?

[obxhead]

15. I've seen a lot of job postings recently

for shit jobs a high school dropout could do demanding a bachelors degree or above. It's insane.

[groundloop]

16. Unfortunately this is nothing new

In 1983 I graduated with a degree in chemical engineering and couldn't find a job. I wound up playing assistant manager at a pizza store with a buddy of mine for nearly a year.

I tell you what, just barely getting by like that was certainly eye opening (as if working my way through college wasn't) and certainly served to shape my political views.

[lovuian]

17. It reflects the loss of manufacturing and innovated companies in America

we are in a economy of Austerity .... No growth
We have a aging Baby Boom generation who can not retire
to do lack of Pensions and lack of medical Insurance

We have incoming EDUCATED young people who are having to take a waitress job

Capitalism isn't working for our society
We need a system which provides jobs to people

The Worker needs more respect and Treatment here in America

[RainDog]

19. this is the condition that has created revolution, now and in history

French Revolution - educated class of lawyers, etc. who were financially hit by an aristocracy that refused to raise taxes to cover the national debt b/c of stupid war expenses and their own privileges. A rigid religious/political alliance justified every bad thing done and made money off the misery of its people.

Middle East now - educated young people who are oppressed by rigid religious/political alliances that make money off the misery of its people.

honestly, our current govt seems so incapable of solving the problems we have, because they don't like the solutions - I wouldn't be surprised one bit to see some major shit go down -

-esp. since the Republican legislature now wants to double the interest rates on college loans and has spent their time writing legislation meant to harm younger women who need health care, even when jobs that pay living wages aren't there.

the middle class has been hurt by 30 years of anti-labor, anti-worker policies that are the legacy of economic conservatism on both sides of the aisle.

if the Democrats don't recognize what is happening, they will be dismissed along with Republicans.

there are always bad things that happen to good people when societies become so unstable because of the corruption and greed of the ruling elite. the ruling elite, ultimately, are to blame.

if the aristocrats in France had had even the most simple grace to recognize the misery they were creating, they wouldn't have been murdered en masse. But they didn't, so they were. The French Revolution is a cautionary tale for the ruling elite in any nation that they should all learn from, but they rarely do.

FDR learned from it - he saw that the reforms he enacted staved off outright revolution here. that was a different time - the socialist movement had more teeth, but with our current problems, a similar movement, based on students and recent grads, rather than labor, has the capacity to organize much more quickly - and many of them have in the Occupy movement.

take heed, democrats.

[DeSwiss]

20. The caterpillar must cease to be.....

...if the butterfly is to ever lift its wings.

[ellisonz]

22. SHIT IS FUCKED UP AND BULLSHIT

[TBF]

33. Took the words right out of my mouth.

The only wonder is that more of them aren't on the street protesting.

[Evasporque]

34. with those math skills you must be employed.....nt