Class of 2020 and 2021 college grads, anxious to shop their abilities amongst employers, will confront a complex labor market post the 2020 COVID-influenced economic meltdown. As Class of 2021 graduates emerge from the chrysalis of college, seeking entry into the professional class, they may instead queue up behind the 45% of their Class of 2020 peers who are still…
As new college grads join the ranks of the career-minded, dutifully employed professional, hopeful yet apprehensive in the concomitant uncertainty, I’m sharing advice from Avni, who’s a few years post college graduation. Her wisdom as she reflected on her few years working full time wrangling adulthood, then wondering what if… I would give two pieces of advice to anyone who…
Many students (and their parents) believe that applying to college begins by choosing a career that will align with one of the many majors on the pull down list of most digital college applications, often wrongly assuming that college is little more than a sophisticated form of job training required in order to achieve lasting prosperity. Typically, deciding on a career…
In February 2020, approximately 165 million people were employed out of an approximate civilian population of 250 million Americans. In the economic recession of March 2020, 20 million jobs were lost. Since then, in the interim 12 months, only 10 millions jobs were re-created, leaving 10 million people still seeking employment. Of that 10 million, roughly 4 million people have…
Many soon-to-be college graduates—in a time of economic upheaval and pandemic induced doubt—fatalistic and full of dread can relate to the most recent college student-produced meme. Currently, unemployment and underemployment of new college grads is increasing, and gateways to employment like internships and other extracurricular activities are drying up or are suspended at closed or severely-restricted campuses resulting in fewer…
Two income families have become synonymous with modern parenting. Yet, in the recent COVID-induced economic disruption, when women are more likely to be unemployed or underemployed than men, the family dynamic may also be shifting. ….by April [2020] the COVID-19 crisis had created a 3 percentage point gender gap in unemployment. A similar gap emerged in the share of men…
The most recent underemployment figures from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, indicating that 43% of 22-27 year old college graduates who are working in jobs that do not require their university degrees, show a nearly 2% increase from February 2020, pre-COVID economic disruption. Yet, as college graduates are usually the last cohort to be more widely affected in…
First, in Spring 2020, as we retreated into our homes concerned for the health risks of contracting COVID, we re-centered our lives. Following stringent social distancing guidelines, we imported the world to our personal fiefdoms. Thus, we’re spending more on groceries to prepare our own meals, purchasing cable and satellite TV for news and entertainment, and cleaning products attempting to…
In the current economic upheaval, those individuals with more education are unemployed at lower rates than all other groups. Or by wages, assuming that wage is an indicator of educational attainment, those with $60,000+ in wages have lower rates of unemployment than those earning less than $60,000. However, if the recession during The Great Financial Crisis of 2009 is an…
Increasing emergency unemployment claims seems to indicate more people have lost their jobs, yet decreasing continuing jobless claims could mean those unemployed are now employed or failed to get a job, thus are or at risk of being permanently unemployed (or those no longer looking for work.) Translation: we either have at best a bifurcated job market or at worst,…
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…
The American middle class is shrinking, as educational achievement plateaus at the average level of attainment and more middle class families compensate the lagging educational achievement with discretionary spending on extracurricular activities and supplemental academic support services. By the late 1970’s, the collapse of American manufacturing sector made way for the meteoric rise of the knowledge-based service and technology sectors,…
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…
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…
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…
