Outsourcing Jobs: Young Adults Without Employment or Futures

OLIVIA CHEUNG
News Editor

“We want to create and sell products all over the world that are stamped with three simple words: ʻMade in America.ʼ Thatʼs our goal.”
President Barack Obama made that statement last December, but data released in September from the U.S. Census Bureau proved otherwise.
Employment between ages sixteen to twenty-nine stood at 55.3 percent, down 12 percent compared to 2000 when employment was 67.3 percent and the lowest it had been since the end of World War II.
Young males without a college degree were most likely to lose their jobs due to lowered demand for blue-collar jobs in construction, manufacturing and transportation.
“Itʼs unnerving to think about adulthood when all of these facts are considered,” sophomore Gavin Chao said. “With jobs becoming a scarcity, competition is only going to become tougher.”
Just as millions of American manufacturing jobs were lost in the 1980s and 1990s, white-collar American jobs are also disappearing today. Almost 500,000 whitecollar American jobs have already been transferred offshore to the Philippines, Malaysia and China, with Eastern Europe expected to follow.
“These people will be scarred, and they will be called the ʻlost generationʼ [since] their careers would not be the same way if we had avoided this economic disaster,” Richard Freeman, an economist at Harvard University, said.
Overall, the employment-to-population ratio for all age groups recorded from 2007-2010 dropped at the fastest rate in comparison to similar three-year periods since the government began recording data in 1948.
“I worry that after all the education I have received that I will not be able to get a job […] as the economy worsens.” junior Nicholas Oda said.
Within the past year, 43 of the 50 largest U.S. metropolitan areas continued to decline in employment, with Charlotte, N.C. in the lead followed by cities like Jacksonville, Fla and Los Angeles, Calif. These cities have reported experiencing housing busts, budget defi cits or meltdowns in banking or manufacturing industries.
Without jobs, young adults are not able to start careers or live independently.
Among adults from ages eighteen to thirty-four, long-distance moves in the nation fell last year to roughly 3.2 million people. A total of 5.9 million Americans between ages twenty-five through thirty-four have opted to refrain from relocation, which is an increase of 25 percent since the recession.
“Many young adults are essentially postponing adulthood and all of the family responsibilities and extra costs that go along with it,” Mark Mather, an associate vice president at the private Population Reference Bureau said.
Without stable income after graduating college, young adults are facing more challenges compared to previous generations.