So, got a little story for ya, Ags. Our class (and those close above and below) are bearing the brunt of today’s recession. A little research has revealed to me the recession isn’t really hitting jobs for those age 16-19, or jobs aimed at young adults 20-24, those that are really getting hit are those in the full-time working field between ages 18-29. They have been getting hit “exceptionally hard”.
I definitely fall into this category. The day I got laid off was one of the few times I’ve actually sat down and drank straight whiskey. Well, it was that or because they ran out of cherries at Panera Bread and neglected to tell me that one particular Monday at lunch, ten minutes after getting the news. [Thank you, Shiloh Venable, for saving me from throwing a table at the staff there that day.]
The unemployment rate rose 9.4% in the month of May, 2009 alone. I believe it, because I was unemployed a year prior, and I at least GOT some interviews last summer. On the plus side; the increase in unemployed Houstonites made my life easier that TWC wasn’t pounding down my door (or the place I was crashing at’s door, because I was trying NOT to pay my electricity bill) demanding to see my job paperwork and making me drive all the way into downtown Houston to meet with a counselor…
It seems more of the jobs being lost are those between 25 – 29, which creates a significant disadvantage for those who lose their jobs between ages of 18 – 24, because those that have lost theirs between 25 – 29 are fighting them with more experience, probably more education, and way more fight than entry-level workers can muster.
It’s totally not fun watching some of friends, some with Master’s, not able to get any jobs. It’s totally not fun to see a guy in a suit, on the corner in Austin, standing there next to the bums with a sign, begging for a job.
But, my unemployed peers, it could be way worse.
While there seems to be more jobs lost with our age group, those in the age group of 45-60 have the most to lose. As they are laid off, all of their hard work and dreams towards their highest earning years and retirement funds blow up in their face. They now have to scramble for health care of their spouses and children. They have a lot more money invested in pensions and retirement funds that will land them huge fines if they attempt to withdraw before a certain date.
Their troubles are NOT being helped by the housing bust. Those same people, simultaneously working to build equity in their homes while saving for retirement are now facing the fact that the value of their home has plummeted beyond their worst nightmares.
This age group is by far the scariest sounding. Now they have to pray for not only a new job, but for the value of their home to go up, and then somehow landing a new job to recuperate and climb back into earning power. And even if they do land a new job, it may add several years or a decade beyond their original retirement goal if they have lost vested 401K’s and other similar saving plans with previous companies.
Fellow, unemployed, miserable quarter-lifers. I know it seems sad, and that we seem like the most expendable; and in reality we probably are. But, when you lay your head down in your parent’s house that you were forced to move back into, or ring up that last person at your crappy retail job, just be thankful that you don’t have much to lose except another interview.
