Why can't millennials find jobs?

[Professor]

[eynon81]

[eric]

[The Comrade]

[eynon81]

[The Comrade]

yeah but they didn't earn anything or propose anything to their boss, so what did they actually accomplish aside from getting a job they wanted?

nothing, eynon. that's what they accomplished.

[gla22]

[eynon81]

[Winchester]

This is absolutely disgusting what I am reading. Just about all of you (except Winchester) seem to have NO IDEA how truly awful it is out there for millennials. People sit here blaming millennials, statistically the most intelligent, educated, charitable and civic generation in american history, for problems created by their parents. To make matter worse, it isn't as if millennials are getting the short stick today so that they can proposer tomorrow. We get the short stick today, and tomorrow we get the medicaid, social security and tax bill for the generations before us that somehow neglected to save, or even spend within their means, despite enjoying the greatest economic boom in world history.

1. Student loans
Let's look at the reality today. A college education is more necessary than ever for long term employment prospects. And yet, the cost has not only outpaced inflation, but has become so high that it's essentially become a massive tax on an entire generation.

And this chart is just tuition! Nevermind your own living expenses for those 4 years of college. Now I'm sure some smart mouthed boomer will point out how they fixed cars for minimum wage (which back then was 50% more in real terms than minimum wage today) to pay for their college. I could not work as an engineer full time and AFFORD to pay my years worth of college tuition. The cost has become so high that unless you have wealthy parents or significant scholarships, you will take on debt and it will be a sizable sum. Scholarships are zero sum, so simply studying harder (which we have been doing) isn't going to solve anyones problems. Wealthy parents you have no control over. So here you have masses of students, through no fault of their own, being forced to take on tens and hundreds of thousands of debt to finance an education society has been telling them since birth is absolutely necessary (and for most still is). THEN, to make matters worse, boomers vote for tax cuts making public tuitions rise, put student loan interest rates at 4-5-6-7%, and write an article each week describing us as lazy. The people who failed to properly save for retirement are lecturing us, on what we should do? Listen, EVERY millennial would have a full and happy retirement is instead of paying down student loans at 7%, we were able to bank it and save at that rate. And just as with retirement where starting early and saving a lot leads to good things in the long run, having a lot of debt at a young age with a high interest rate is a very difficult hole to escape from. Even those of us employed struggle to afford cars, houses, or kids because we are still paying down huge chunks of educational debt that never seem to shrink because of usurious rates of interest.

2. Economy/Employment prospects
None to speak of. Two main problems are at play here: 1. boomers ruined the economy in 2007 and 2. boomers refuse to retire. What does this all mean? Well first, there simply are not enough jobs to employ the people who are graduating (from college or high school). This is our problem but it is not our fault. There is constant talk about plenty of employers being willing to hire those with the right skills, but they just can't find anyone. This is an absolute load of shit. Employers have absurd requirements, with insulting pay, that millennial's can not afford to take because of problem number 1 (student loans). I see opening for legal positions, paying 25k, wanting 2 years of experience, requiring a move to the middle of nowhere, with no benefits. A legal degree costs 100k+ in today's market. It isn't that we don't want the job, its that we can't afford to take a 25k full time job with 100k+ in loans. We can't even get 2 years experience because every position wants 2 years experience. We can't even take a low position with the expectation of moving up. All you young people who just started working, look above you. You will notice it is crowded. Boomers never retire, and so you have some Gen Xer who has been on the job 10-20 years waiting for his turn at the top. You don't get Gen X's job until he can move up, which means you can't move up until that boomer retires. There used to be a system whereby new labor enters the work force and old labor leaves. Well now we have plenty of new, educated and skilled labor coming it, but no one is leaving. It is a myth that today you can start low and move up. Companies hire management from outside more than ever. The average millennial is expected to have something like 8-9 different full time jobs in their career. We have gotten to a point where those just keeping their head above water (i.e. making a paycheck they can live on today) are considered to be doing well. It's sad. We are the future and here we are stuck in our parents basement working internships for 15k, while those who truly created this problem continue to act as if it is we who are deficient. Nevermind the boomer who still hasn't learned to use a computer and has his secretary write everything for him.

3. Social/Political
The boomers never paid their f**k bills. There is no other way to put it. We are now 16 trillion in debt, and someone is going to have to do something to reduce that and both boomers and xers have shown no ability to do this. Which means naturally, us millennial will pay more in taxes than anyone else, only to receive less in services. Which is fine, we all have to sacrifice for a better future and millennials for the most part understand this. We volunteer, we vote, we participate in charitable activities etc. Yet boomers have this attitude of don't touch my medicare/social security/pension, when it is well known TODAY that such a regime is unsustainable. It's tragic when you have a situation where the kids are the ones being responsible and sacrificing, while the older ones act like children who only demand more and more for themselves at the expense of everyone else. Boomers grew up in a time where young people could buy homes. Who knows anyone under 30 that bought a home recently? Cars? Remember when cars were a status symbol and you could work a job in high school to buy a nice one when you graduate? Well that's a joke. Even those of us working full time struggle to afford a car and insurance, let alone a nice one. Even kids. We can't afford kids, and we won't be able to afford kids for a while. What does it say when you have raised a generation that has had it so rough, they are actually reluctant to have children who may be put through the same circumstances. Millennial's are more likely than any generation to believe that career and personal success comes down to luck. That's a bad, bad thing. Not only is it a huge disincentive to work harder or to improve yourself, but it produces a fatalistic mindset. But what can you expect? We have watched boomers, who if they had to compete today would be destroyed by millennial, reap nothing but luck their entire lives, only to piss it away.

No doubt half of you will ignore this and spout some other zero sum nonsense about how to be better. Network! Get scholarships! Go into engineering! None of these are structural solutions. They are suggestions for the bright to succeed at the expense of their less intelligent or motivated counterparts. Not everyone can do it, and if they could, it wouldn't work. Structural solutions to ensure millennials can find work, and afford to do all the things boomers got to do like buy a house and raise a car are all obstructed by boomer voting blocks and poor economic performance.

[eric]

Just to contrast, although it's not necessarily the fault of the second greatest generation (mine), all these idiots going to school and just soaking up debt for a worthless 4 year degree in social media management or whatever definitely deserve some of the blame. Unless you're going to a top-5/10 school for those things, it's probably a waste of time.

I agree with most of the rest of that post though ^