Pope Francis: the world of work should be open to the young [CWN]
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MacBP
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As a young person myself, I can safely say that the job market is a nightmare. As a grad student, I’ve been granted temporary reprieve, but I have enough friends who recently graduated from college and university to know how difficult it can be to find any sort of work, let alone anything that pays decently and give full time hours.Even accounting for the fact that there are still some career pathways (the trades, healthcare, engineering, etc.) that have a reasonable prospect of employment, I suspect if everyone taking a “bad” degree made smarter decisions, we would still have a lot of unemployed young people. There just aren’t enough good jobs for the people that need them.
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Vim71
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Pretty much. I know plenty of people who are unemployed despite choosing the smarter decisions, but of course everyone will just claim that isn’t true and that the young are lazy.
It’s always good to hear someone like Pope Francis mentioning this, because at least someone understands the plight of young people, instead of the usual responses of “You’re too entitled”, “You’re just lazy”, “When I was your age. . .”, etc. While I agree there are some people that fit that description, it is not all young people.
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Johann_du_Toit
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The Pope was likely speaking about Italy in particular, were the labour laws are rigid, youth unemployment is rampant also in part because what few jobs are available are saved for older people (to such a degree many young Italians choose to immigrate due to there being no prospects for jobs at home).
Still, his words would be relevant in many other countries, such as South Africa (I struggled for years to get a proper job after graduating from university).
Still, his words would be relevant in many other countries, such as South Africa (I struggled for years to get a proper job after graduating from university).
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SonOfMan
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While I think young people these days may be more book-smart, they certainly lack more common sense. Im just extrapolating, but I have a friend who has a degree but refused a job that had good benefits and good pay because it didnt have anything to do with what he majored in. Instead, he chose to work at Starbucks.Pretty much. I know plenty of people who are unemployed despite choosing the smarter decisions, but of course everyone will just claim that isn’t true and that the young are lazy.
It’s always good to hear someone like Pope Francis mentioning this, because at least someone understands the plight of young people, instead of the usual responses of “You’re too entitled”, “You’re just lazy”, “When I was your age. . .”, etc. While I agree there are some people that fit that description, it is not all young people.
Obviously hes working, at least, but young people aren’t thinking outside the box here.
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MacBP
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That’s probably part of it. I don’t pretend that my generation is entirely faultless in our inability to find jobs. In my experience, however, the scenario is rare. Most young people I know would leap on the opportunity to start a job with good benefits and good pay; unfortunately, they don’t come across those opportunities. I don’t know if that’s because those opportunities don’t exist or if its because people are too narrow in their search strategies, but I don’t know anyone who has had the luxury of turning down a decent job.
Part of the problem may be that people are overly reliant on their degree for future employment. People tend to focus on doing well on their degree to the exclusion of developing soft skills and networking. By the the time they leave school that web of connections isn’t there to help them break into the job market. I know that when I start my OT degree in the fall, I’m going to be taking every opportunity I can to network, improve my resume, and generally improve my prospects of being hired post grad.
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Catholic1954
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Age should not be a factor in hiring someone; however, if I had to choose, I would go with the older guy who is trying to support a wife and 3 kids.
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laircy
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I have applied to 20 jobs, had 2 interviews, and 0 hires… and it was the minimum wage jobs that supposedly “anyone” can get. It makes me wonder when I see peers looking for a second or third job. How can you even get one? A friend said last summer she applied to 60 jobs and didn’t get one. It does seem that you have to know someone who will hire you.
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