The Harrowing Job Market

Over at Instapundit Glenn Reynolds writes:

YA THINK? Higher Education: The Next Asset Bubble? “45 percent of college graduates earn less than $15,000.” Can this be true?

Yes it can be true! My son is 25, graduated from a well-respected school, has additional certifications in a variety of areas and is a well-read autodidact to boot. He is currently working at what he hopes will be a temporary job where — even with “overtime” — he took home a whopping $1,000 last month. Real unemployment numbers for his age group were, last I read, around 24%, so he is happy to be working at all, and is not averse to checking out custodial jobs in school districts if it means steady work, decent pay and benefits, but those jobs are becoming like gold — your best bet to finding one is to either be connected, or already employed there in a temporary capacity.

Or, you know, you can wear a superhero cape!

Meanwhile, though he has the best intentions in the world, my son’s student loan payments fall on us, until he can finally afford to make them, and this is a reality being lived out in families throughout the nation. Right now he is living on rice and beans (“nutritious and cheap!”) and is earning just enough to, you know, gas up his clunker of a car in order to go to the job that pays just enough to keep him gassing up his clunker of a car to go to the job that pays just enough…etc…

The job-prospects are so bad, the pickings so slim and the competition so vast, that the job-hunt for people in his age group is depressing and demoralizing. No hope or change on their horizon.

But he recently had his first job interview in over six months, for an entry-level position, and he’s been called back for a second round. He knows better than to get his hopes up — he’s competing with more experienced people who are also desperate and will take less money than they are worth in order to be again-employed. Please pray for his intentions.

I wonder if we’ll ever again see the days of 4.7% unemployment and the record-high tax revenues we saw when everyone was working, and even the NY Times had to admit that jobs, equals tax revenues, equals paying down the deficit.

That was only back in 2006. Before the elections.