Main Street

Word on the Street: Struggles of Young Workers

Kim McMurray — Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

I come from a generation of planners. We studied for the SATs, went to college, picked a major that would hopefully lead to a career, and ignored the voice in the back of our heads reminding us of the time we wanted to be novelists, or baseball players, or underwater basket weavers. We believed that if we worked hard enough, if we took a 9-5 job that only sort of numbed our souls, we could live a life of relative comfort. This plan included health insurance and rent payments, at least in the short term. But then the American Dream crashed down around us in the form of the Great Recession.

Families are losing their homes. Parents are struggling to put food on the table. Senior citizens are rejoining the workforce in their 80s. In all the heartbreaking stories about unemployment, it is easy to lose sight of the young people who have been affected by this crisis.

Rob majored in finance in college because, well, he was told that there would always be jobs in finance. He graduated in May of 2008, six months after the initial Wall St. crash. Living at home, he spent several months looking for jobs with no avail. Finally, he thought that he caught a break. Rob was hired as an intern for an up and coming finance company. They couldn’t pay him at the time, but they promised him stock options in the company and an eventual job once the market turned around. He spent a year dutifully tracking the markets, staring at spreadsheets, and fetching coffee. Six months ago, the company was sold to a larger finance company that laid-off all the previous employees. Two and a half years after graduating college, Rob is back to square one: living at home, depending on his parents, waiting for his life to start.

In some ways, Rob is lucky. He has parents that he can depend on, a degree, experience. At 19, Herman had a job at a warehouse. After working there for about a year and a half, the warehouse laid-off two full shifts of workers. As most of these stories go, Herman was one of those workers. He doesn’t have kids or a mortgage payment yet, but he was just starting. For the past months, he has been struggling to find a job. He has missed rent payments. He has watched the middle be forgotten about, seen crime go up in his community, and lost faith in his government to help those who are struggling. His story is far too common.

My generation doesn’t deserve this world. We followed the rules, we made an effort, and what we were left with was an economy that collapsed as soon as we touched it. I hope we can bounce back.