The Young and Unemployed

Young people are having a heck of a time finding that first job, keeping a job, or being in the work force in any way. See the following quote from an article in the National Journal via Yahoo News:

More than 17 percent of 16-to-24-year-olds who are looking for work can't find a job, a rate that is close to a 30-year high. The employment-to-population ratio for that demographic—the percentage of young people who are working—has plunged to 45 percent. That's the lowest level since the Labor Department began tracking the data in 1948.

This is not a good time to be coming of age and trying to enter the workforce. The article goes on to add:

As The Atlantic's Don Peck wrote last year, citing a litany of research from Yale University's Lisa Kahn, college graduates who enter the labor force during a recession make significantly less money—in their first year and over the course of their careers—than grads who walk into an economic boom.

The "over the course of their careers" finding is particularly troubling.