1 in 2 new graduates jobless or underemployed

Parent Cafe
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<p>A recent Economist issue had some interesting articles on manufacturing and its future, highly recommended: [The</a> third industrial revolution | The Economist](<a href=“http://www.economist.com/printedition/2012-04-21]The”>The third industrial revolution | Apr 21st 2012 | The Economist)</p>

<p>Among other things discussed is the increasing competitiveness of North American manufacturing in some sectors over East Asia.</p>

<p>As far as employment goes, I think we are slowly creeping up on a fundamental shift in societal values. When technology has advanced to the point of eliminating vast sectors of employment, the idea of “full” employment seems obsolete as well. Working an increasing number of hours and competing for a dwindling number of positions strikes me as yet another manifestation of the race to the bottom. In the short term the social impact of unemployment can be reduced through various initiatives, as already shown in Europe:</p>

<p>E.g. Reduce the number of working hours: [Kurzarbeit</a> - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia](<a href=“http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kurzarbeit]Kurzarbeit”>Kurzarbeit - Wikipedia)</p>

<p>E.g. Provide a viable alternative to (a possibly useless) university degree and unemployment: [Dual</a> education system - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia](<a href=“http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dual_education_system]Dual”>Dual education system - Wikipedia)</p>

<p>In the long-run our task will be to change why and how we work.</p>

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<p>In various areas of product creation, it sometimes helps to work large numbers of hours and then small numbers of hours. We do this in the engineering product cycle. Some parts of the cycle require intensive effort and some don’t and you take breaks, vacations, etc. during the down periods. There are many that don’t want to reduce the number of hours that they work as they want to move up in the company and learning many areas may help in that endeavor.</p>

<p>Do the BMW and MB plants in the US curtail worker hours? If not, then that’s one way to get around maximum hours regulations.</p>

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<p>^ Great article (in the Economist) PerpetualStudent. And hopeful too!</p>

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<p>This may be optimal for the engineering product cycle, but it must wreak havoc on work-family balance.</p>

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<p>Most of the typically admired white collar jobs (accounting, law, computer science, etc) all work like that. And many raise great families. Work-life balance is fine as long as there upcycles have a reciprocating downcycles. It’s jobs where the downs don’t really exist that you have family issues.</p>

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<p>Are we really telling our 21 year olds to start worrying about raising a family before they even have their first job?</p>

<p>Kids- don’t walk into your first job blathering about work-life balance. Employers like me hear a 22 year old worrying about that and we think “Slacker”. It’s not fair, and I’m sure it’s not true- but to be worried about long hours and having to keep your blackberry on during dinner when you have no dependents and no responsibility seems a little premature.</p>

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<p>It sure does.</p>

<p>Household help helps.</p>

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<p>Early 20s is when you dive into your work.</p>

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<p>QFT.</p>

<p>Get to work first. Leave after your boss. “Work-life balance” is ridiculous.</p>

<p>It’s like “early retirement.”</p>

<p>It’s not even actually very healthy, now that the studies are in.</p>

<p>ETA: RE: structural unemployment</p>

<ol>
<li><p>We are at the END, not the start of structural unemployment, vis-s-vis manufacturing. Some things will always be made where they are used, and we have pretty much hit bottom with that.</p></li>
<li><p>I’m sure when the family farm went away, the end was nie, as well.</p></li>
</ol>

<p>The bigger worry is things like “Work-life” balance 'speak" and “early retirement” and “quality of life” speak. Find something you are good at and do it. Stop analyzing whether it’s making you happy. Read the new happiness research, and you will find little to be said about any of those pop psych areas. It’s not what really makes you happy. Being busy is the natural human state. No wonder we are getting obese.</p>

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<p>Here’s a growth area:</p>

<p>However, according to a report published last year by McKinsey, there is a problem. “A significant constraint on realizing value from Big Data will be a shortage of talent, particularly of people with deep expertise in statistics and machine learning, and the managers and analysts who know how to operate companies by using insights from Big Data,” the report said. “We project a need for 1.5 million additional managers and analysts in the United States who can ask the right questions and consume the results of the analysis of Big Data effectively.” What the industry needs is a new type of person: the data scientist. </p>

<p>[Talent</a> Shortage Looms Over Big Data - WSJ.com](<a href=“Talent Shortage Looms Over Big Data - WSJ”>Talent Shortage Looms Over Big Data - WSJ)</p>

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<p>Because sitting in an office 70 hours a week keeps you fit and healthy… :P</p>

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<p>We have very nice fitness facilities at our office.</p>

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<p>:D</p>

<p>It keeps you more fit and healthy than sitting around watching TV or playing video games. You do get out to the gym, I hope. Or out for a walk or a run. </p>

<p>There are 168 hours in a week. If you sleep for 7 a night, and work for seventy a week, you are left with 49 hours a week, or 7 more hours a day, which is plenty when you don’t yet have kids.</p>

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<p>70 hours a week is 10 hours every day. Then you have to get ready-an hour, get to and from work-at least an hour so you are up at 7 and back after 7 every day of the week. That is no life.</p>

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<p>It is also unhealthy…especially if the job is stressful and fast-paced and doesn’t allocate enough time to exercise and de-stress. Read about a couple of attorneys who died of heart-attacks in their early 30’s because of the relentless pace, nonstop 80+ hour workweeks, stress, and the fact so much work was piled on them they didn’t exercise enough.</p>

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<p>First of all, I think the 70 hour a week comment was an exaggeration.</p>

<p>Second of all, here is how this works, and has always worked. Nothing has changed.</p>

<p>If you want to be very successful in business, you work long hours. You don’t work 9-5. 9-5 is not going to advance you into a decision maker. </p>

<p>So, you can choose, and I’m all for people choosing what they want, but they need to understand what they are choosing. The TV show job, the MTV lifestyle, the big apartment in NYC, these things don’t happen on the “work-life balance” track. The fascinating job with all the interesting stuff going on does not happen on the work-life balance track. If you want that track, you get that job, and there is not a thing wrong with it, either, but it’s a choice.</p>

<p>In business, you are travelling, or you are working. You are almost always working, when you are the one who is making the decisions and the pay that goes with that job. You can choose another path, but the truth is, if you don’t show up early and if you leave every day before your supervisor, someone is there before you and someone is there after you leave.</p>

<p>Every great opportunity I ever got, or my husband ever got, came because we were there when they were handing out the opportunities. I never got a promotion until I had already basically been doing that job and my own for quite some time, and neither did my husband, or any of the other people we know who don’t have to worry about money.</p>

<p>So, good luck. Choose the life you want. It’s your life.</p>

<p>But, if you want to be indespensible? BE indespensible. </p>

<p>Good luck to you all.</p>

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<p>CollectiveSynergy, What? Did they teach you that in your economics class? Do a little outside reading and stop mimicking your Republican professors. When work goes overseas U.S. wages fall because there are more unemployed workers competing for fewer jobs and the country’s wages that get the work rises because more people are working. Start addressing your own ignorance and don’t just swallow what your professors tell you. You and PoetGirl should get together and do a study group.</p>

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<p>ElectroPennDad–</p>

<p>I’m a parent. </p>

<p>Have a nice life.</p>

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<p>Amen, poetgrl. That’s been my experience, too. The workers who get noticed and promoted are those who work 10-12 hours a day, sometimes six days a week. Those who work 9 to 5 usually do okay, but they definitely do not get the opportunities or the praise that the hard-chargers get. </p>

<p>In the business world, atleast at my previous employer, if you wanted a work-life balance, that was fine, that was your choice, but you couldn’t complain if you weren’t promoted quickly. Everyone knew the unwritten rules of the game.</p>

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<p>Nice description of slavery, #357.</p>