The difficulties for those in the younger generations to generate wealth are consequences of a structural shift in the U.S. economy in the last forty years, well before today’s late Boomer and Gen X parents entered the labor market as twenty-somethings. As highlighted in a recent Federal Reserve Bank research paper, “Market Power, Inequality, and Financial Instability”, Isabel Cairo &…
Tag: Underemployment
The Current Employment Picture
For the first time in four weeks, less than 800,000 people filed new unemployment claims (those who have lost their jobs and now seek financial relief from either state or federal government) during the week ending October 17, 2020. Yet, the pre-COVID job market is slow to recover post the March 2020 financial tantrum, as the reduction can mean a…
Confidence Slipping, Mind the Gap
Consumer confidence on Main Street, as measured by the Conference Board, is waning, dipping lower than levels at the height of the shelter-in-place orders in April, in direct opposition to the rapidly improving confidence of Wall Street from the lows in Spring 2020. And, yet, that same Wall Street confidence only constitutes 10% of Americans who own 87% of the…
Paradise Lost
Many are doing more with less, while living through the global, systemic retreat from “life as we knew it”, induced by a virus we cannot see. For some, though, doing the “same with less” is now their life’s maxim, having accepted substantial pay cuts to remain employed during the current economic upheaval. As Megan Casella of Politco writes: Now, with…
Employment Outlook Requires Purposeful Action
With nearly half of all American adults out-of-work and a second wave of the coronavirus making itself known with governments at the state, federal and local levels issuing varying orders affecting daily life, new entrants into the labor market, the young college graduate or not, are rightfully concerned. Nearly half of the population is still out of a job showing…
Employment Conundrum
We’re officially in a recession, meaning GDP, or the total value of goods produced and services provided in the US during a single year has declined for two consecutive quarters. The world economy is expected to contract by 5.2% this year—the worst recession in 80 years—but the sheer number of countries suffering economic losses means the scale of the downturn…
Delayed Economic Vitality
As the Class of 2020 commences, into what economic state do they commence? As reported by Courtney Weaver in the Financial Times on May 28, 2020: With US unemployment at its highest level since the second world war and the country still grappling with the economic fallout of coronavirus, university graduates are watching start dates be deferred, internships cancelled and…
Middle Class Wealth Erosion Set to Continue
The above chart depicts that the wealthiest and upper middle class have not only regained their wealth previous to the 2008 recession, but gained greater wealth, at the expense of the middle class and poorest classes. And, now, middle class and poorer families are facing an even greater economic downturn that has yet to be even defined in scope, though…
More Economic Difficulties for Gen Z and Millennials
Graph courtesy of The Wall Street Journal Current college students, many who find themselves at home though would rather be finishing their school year on college campuses around the country, will be confronting along with their older colleagues who graduated college in 2019, 2018, a possibly more complicated problem that of protracted unemployment. In addition, the long term economic outlook…
Why a College Degree May Not Be a Guarantee of “Wealth” and Prosperity
Hat Tip: Whatever It Takes to Never Give Up, Doug Noland
Got Jobs?
Since many attend college in search of “The Golden Ticket”, AKA “a good job”, the above map can give needed information about employment opportunities to both high school seniors and soon-to-be college graduates. With more information about the greatest potential employment in a particular location, students can consider if they’d move somewhere, apply to a specific college, what internships may…
College Degree = Value, Right?
Financial security, or the promise of lifetime employment, is often a reason for choosing to attend college. However, recent income and employment trends may give college-bound students pause to further contemplate their expectations of job security with a college degree. 44% of today’s college graduates are underemployed, meaning they don’t need a college degree for their current jobs, according to…
More on U.S. Employment
Presented for those of you wondering why new college grads are having a difficult time finding employment: The employment rate has been improving lately, but not nearly as much as the unemployment rate http://t.co/X52OksfI0v pic.twitter.com/Pjx8mS9AMV — Real Time Economics (@WSJecon) February 7, 2014
Ahead of the Curve: February 7, 2014
From Our Clients: SAT and ACT Prep: Each day, I talk with at least one parent concerned that their kid is not doing enough preparation for the SAT or ACT, who asks for advice how to motivate their kid to practice SAT and ACT questions. For most teens, the intention to prepare for the SAT and ACT is high. And,…
Caution: For Soon-to-Be-Graduated College Students
As the chart shows, 18% of college graduates are currently living with their parents. In addition, unemployed college graduates are more likely to live at home (45% vs. 29%),