Three out of
four recent high school graduates not attending college full-time do not have a
full-time job, according to a study released on Wednesday by Carl Van Horn,
Cliff Zukin and Mark Szeltner at Rutgers University's John J. Heldrich Center
for Workforce Development. Many of these recent high school graduates are too
unprepared to finish college or work at a job that offers professional
advancement, Van Horn said.
Among recent
high school graduates not in college, 30 percent are jobless and actively
looking for work, according to the Rutgers report; another 14 percent are
jobless but not looking for work.
In contrast, an
Economic Policy Institute report showed in 2007 an unemployment rate of just
17.5 percent among recent high school graduates not attending
college.
Today's new
college graduates are snatching the low-end jobs in retail, restaurants, sales
and offices that used to be the domain of recent high school graduates, Van Horn
said.
Recent high
school graduates "don't have a trade, and they don't have any advanced technical
skills, so they've got no upward mobility," Van Horn said. "They're going to
struggle to form families, to have housing, to be financially independent from
their parents, to essentially achieve a family-sustainable income, unless they
can get some form of post-secondary education."
Eight in 10
recent high school graduates not attending college said that their first job was
just one to get them by, according to the Rutgers study. On average, their first
job barely paid wages above the federal minimum, and the wages of those employed
are barely enough to keep them out of poverty. Seventy-one percent of those with
jobs are performing temporary work; just 8 percent of respondents called their
current job a career.
The struggles of
these young people can hurt everyone else, too, Van Horn said. A lowered level
of economic opportunity translates into less innovation and lower consumer
spending to motivate companies to hire workers. Struggling high school grads
also will have trouble taking care of themselves and their children, which might
result in taxpayer expenses to cover food stamps, emergency room care and other
social services. Huffington Post
Thirty-two
percent of 18- to 29-year-olds in the U.S. workforce were underemployed in
April, as measured by Gallup without seasonal adjustment. This is up from 30.1%
in March and is slightly higher than the 30.7% of a year
ago. Gallup's U.S.
underemployment measure combines the unemployed with those working part time but
looking for full-time work. Underemployment
among 18- to 29-year-olds has hovered around 30% for most of the past year,
showing no real improvement. Gallup
AHT/ARA
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