College Graduates Are Really Screwed

[marmar]

from 24/7WallStreet:



College Graduates Are Really Screwed
Posted: September 24, 2010 at 10:59 am


Attention college seniors: it’s an awful year to graduate college. Anyone with a brain knows that given the state of the economy but the Brookings Institution recently spelled it out in frightening detail.

For these young adults just entering the labor market for the first time, the impacts of the recession will last well into the future. According to one study (Kahn 2010), young people graduating from college during today’s severe recession will earn approximately 17.5 percent less per year than comparable peers graduating in better labor markets. This lower wage effect is highly persistent, fading away only after 17 years of work.

What does this mean in terms of lost income? For the average college graduate this year, this translates into approximately $70,000 (in today’s dollars) in lost earnings over the next decade. For the 2008, 2009, and 2010 classes combined that amounts to over $330 billion in lost earnings over 10 years. The projected losses are even larger for graduates who cannot find a job upon graduation.

It’s even more depressing when you consider that graduates with student loans carried an average debt of $23,200 in 2008, up 25 percent from 2004. The figures probably have worsened since then as unemployed parents were no longer able to provide for their children’s education. Graduates of professional and graduate schools often have six figure debt loads.

Young people have been hit especially hard during the economic slowdown. Unemployment among workers aged 16 to 24 is at record levels. Older, more experienced workers are now willing to do entry-level jobs that the young people had expected to get following graduation. That situation will not improve much until the economic turnaround finally happens. .........(more)

The complete piece is at: http://247wallst.com/2010/09/24/college-graduates-are-really-screwed/#ixzz10kWNUAYc

[liberal N proud]

1. Tell me! I am still suffering from the Reagan Recessions

Now my daughter just graduated from college and she is in far worse debt and far worse market than I faced.

[hayu_lol]

4. This economy and the conditions that caused it...

have recent college grads returning to college for Masters and Ph.Ds. They are all facing some pretty steep tuition/living/book and material costs by the time they again attempt to join the workforce.

Son graduated in '04 and still has a college debt of $50,000.

[Al Claybon]

2. We treat our kids like garbage cans. We fill their bodies with crap that kills them

We fill their minds with teevee and video games.

We fill their souls with a lust for junk and gadgets.

And we fill their future with broken promises.

Sound like abuse to me...

[Greyhound]

3. How completely honest.

Hope you last...

[Al Claybon]

6. Thanks GH. Just this morning, I read a story about French STUDENTS taking to the

streets to protest conditions in their nation.

http://www.swissinfo.ch/eng/news/international/French_pension_strikes_highlight_youth_jobs_malaise.html?cid=28410840

And no, they were not calling for free music downloads or a fancier cell phones or other junk that we are telling our kids they must have.

"The thousands who marched in protests this week magnified the fears of a generation facing high joblessness, years of fiscal austerity, an ageing population and the prospect of working much longer careers than their parents, analysts said."

These students were supporting their parents in fighting the increasing the retirement age from 60 to 62 years of age.

These students know that their future prospects for a good life are being destroyed by the greed of present-day "adults" who already have more than enough.

These students are seeing a future of lower expectations in all important areas of life - and are saying that this is wrong.

[Greyhound]

7. YVW.

When I read things like this, it is hard not to despair at how far we've sunk.
:kick:

[Peregrine Took]

5. For full time jobs with benefits/pensions? Mandatory retirement!

Get out and let someone else have that job. Its only fair.

[county worker]

8. No it is not!

You couldn't do my job. I'm not going into poverty just so you can have a job!

[L0oniX]

9. Yea I know where there is a nice little park with soft bushes we can sleep in...

and there's a homeless food line just across the street on Saturday. I'm sure your mom and dad would love it too.