While Wall Street profits have returned to pre-recession levels, the United States has recovered only half the jobs lost between December 2007 and June 2009. Taking population growth into account, the proportion of those employed has hardly risen at all, fluctuating between 58 and 59 percent compared to over 63 percent at the early 2007 peak.
The working class always pays the price for an economic collapse, but it affects different sectors in different ways. Youth, many of whom are already troubled by debt or inability to pay for college, are finding it incredibly difficult to find work. According to a recent survey conducted by Rutgers University’s John J. Heldrich Center for Workforce Development, the majority of teens said they would definitely or probably go to college, but only 37 percent of them ended up attending college immediately after high school, while 45 percent had to go straight to the workforce.
Of those who were forced to join the job market fresh out of high school, four in 10 said they could not afford to go to college, and an additional one in 10 said they needed to take care of their families. Many who had aspirations to attend college are thus unable to.
A daunting workforce
According to the Rutgers study, the number of teens who are looking for work and are unemployed has increased 14 percentage points, from 23 percent in pre-recession years to 37 percent now.
Even for the youth who are able to find jobs, they are almost always at minimum wage. The median wage for the average high school graduate was $7.50/hour, just 25 cents more than the federal minimum wage. So while young people enter the job market just to get by or assist their family, few are able to significantly change their economic conditions.
Declining summer jobs
The picture is especially grim for teenagers looking for summer jobs. Stimulus money created 370,000 summer youth jobs in 2009 and 2010, but no such jobs initiative was passed for 2011 or 2012. New York City and Los Angeles summer jobs programs have been cut by more than half. In New York, there are five teenage applicants for every opening.
This is not just a question of fewer teenagers wanting to work. More than 44 percent who want summer jobs do not get them or work fewer hours than they prefer.
Over time, the structure of the job market has shifted decisively against young people. Last summer, only 26 percent of teenagers were employed. In 1978, that number was 60 percent, and up until 2001 it remained around 50 percent.
These long-term trends are most severe in the communities that most need the additional income. For African-American and Latino teens in low-income households, only 14 percent and 19 percent were employed, respectively. This compares to 44 percent of white teens with family income of $100,000-$150,000.
A fight for the future
High school graduates understand that their chances of future success have been marred by the recession and overall trends in the economy. Only 44 percent predicted their generation will have more success than its predecessor, and 56 percent predicted less success
This is therefore not just an economic issue—it is a political one, which calls into question the “American Dream.” As young people realize that the country’s founding idea is in reality a myth, many will look for an alternative way. In the richest capitalist country, many will wonder why they are forced to eke out a living, barely paying for necessities like food and shelter.
Although capitalism always maintains a “reserve army” of unemployed workers that expands and contracts according to its needs, in times of economic depression such as now these contradictions are on broad display.
The Party for Socialism and Liberation calls for the seizure of the massive private banks and their wealth to create jobs and education for all. Working-class young people have done nothing to create the economic crisis that is stripping away their future. We fight for a new socialist system to eliminate this destructive and wasteful system of capitalism.
