Unemployment Among Today's Lost Generation

UPDATE (7/27/11): I have since been on two interviews. Interview #1 went very well, except for waiting 20 minutes before meeting with anyone and hearing the receptionist call for four different people to come speak with me. Interview #2 I was told by the employee that the manager was at a meeting and would be back in one hour. I was a little ticked until I went to HR and found out that HR schedules appointments without knowing whether or not the manager is even available. However, when the manager finally arrived, I was told by the same employee that he would be unavailable to see me that day. Too much to ask for the courtesy of personally popping your head in and saying, "Hi, thank you for your patience but I'm so sorry I can't see you today. Can Employee Generic take your information?", especially when I know that even as little as 1 minute late might mean the difference between getting the job and remaining unemployed. It seems very strange, or maybe I'm just too old school now.

I couldn't have said it better myself: A generation of reluctant moochers

Many kids my age are painted as lazy, self-absorbed, spoiled. While you won't get an argument from me that many fit that description, the truth is that most of us don't want to sit on our parents' couches, eating our parents' food, driving on our parents' gas, and sleeping under our parents' roof.

It's killing us. In some cases literally, in the form of higher stress levels which lead to higher rates of health issues. I spend most of my energy looking for ways to develop income (both traditional and alternative), trying to find some happiness, and burdening my parents as little as possible. Many times, the best I can do is shower a little less, have one piece of toast instead of two, and go for the water and not the milk.

(Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics, from website http://economix.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/05/06/older-workers-without-jobs-face-longest-time-out-of-work/)

I have no control over my kitchen. I cannot buy the groceries that I know I can use to make healthy meals. I cannot avoid food filled with high fructose corn syrup or preservatives or other public health hazards when I don't buy the groceries.

I'm just barely going to be able to finish school, and I know I'm not alone. Even though I hold a Bachelor's Degree, I went back to school for an Associate's in Automotive Service Technology because the BA was getting me nowhere in the job market. Through a combination of scholarships and tuition assistance (the government denied me any kind of grants because I was pursuing a degree lower than the one I already have), I should be able to finish in December, only because I have one class to take and no books to buy. If that weren't the case, it's entirely possible I'd have to drop out, wasting three years and about three thousand dollars, and that's just if you only look at direct school costs.

I hate it. I look nonchalant to the rest of the world because to dwell on it would make me sick. To people who worry that I won't move out of my parents' house because I'm comfortable should relax: I'm not comfortable. There is nothing comfortable about wondering if you are taking your showers too long, or going hungry just a little bit longer so you don't eat as much, or trying to keep your hopes up every time someone calls you with an interview for a job you'd otherwise be embarrassed to apply for.

I sincerely hope politicians can get their collective acts together and produce the necessary solutions soon. A block of population aged 18-25 that's bored and unemployed has been shown historically to be more violent and socially disruptive. Should things stay the same or even worsen, the U.S. post-collegiate population would become a tinderbox ripe for a match that could ignite a social movement more violent than the civil rights protests.

May whatever deity you believe in grant that things change soon.