Monday, August 6, 2012

Youth Unemployment

Comment on the post "19, and My Generation"

I am 21, turning 22 in two days.

I am wondering... I have just graduated with a B.Sc. in Psychology (lol) and I am working a manual labor cash job while I apply to medical school.

The employers that I've worked for this summer tell me that they cannot find enough guys who can actually work. It seems nobody wants to put their back into their labour.

So far I have not had any problem finding work. One day in June I got into an argument with my boss and quit, only to find a new job that very morning. Right now I am using this apparent scarcity of good workers in the market to my advantage. This week I will be asking my current boss to raise my hourly wage to $18/hr from $15/hr or else I will find somebody else who pays better.

Meanwhile, I have a bunch of buddies who smoke weed all day and play Call of Duty all night, complaining that they cannot find a decent job. Also, there seems to be some sort of a negative stigma surrounding manual labor jobs, almost as if it is below status work. I don't care though because money is money, my body is robust, and obviously I will not be doing it for the rest of my life.

So, my question to you Evan is: Is there some sort of a labor demand mismatch that is responsible for this high youth unemployment? Is my intuition, that a lot of guys my age are just too lazy to "man-up" and gain a few calluses on their hands, correct?

I suspect something funny is going on when I see reports such as this on one hand, and the deficit of workers on the construction yard on the other.

What's your take? What does the data say?

Great blog by the way!

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