SEARCH
Economic Crisis Hitting Young Workers Hard
 |
Since the current recession began in December 2007, some 1.3 million young workers have left the workforce, while the participation rate of workers ages 55 and older increased, according to a new report by the Economic Policy Institute (EPI).
This means many older workers are not retiring or are re-entering the labor force because they have suffered a sharp decline in retirement security, say authors Kathryn Edwards and Heidi Shierholz.
At the same time, workers ages 16 to 24—who face an unemployment rate of 18.9 percent, compared with 6.8 percent for workers ages 55 and older—are having a hard time finding jobs. Many who do find work end up in low-paying jobs with few or no benefits.
One major benefit that young workers lack is health insurance. One-third of young U.S. adults—nearly 13 million people—had no health insurance coverage in 2008, according to a government report released yesterday. In a survey of more than 9,000 people ages 20 to 29, the National Center for Health Statistics found that 30 percent of young adults had no coverage and were nearly twice as likely as adults ages 30 to 64 to be uninsured.
People ages 20 to 29 account for more than a quarter of the uninsured people in the United States, although they make up just 14 percent of the overall population.
AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer Liz Shuler says the problems faced by young workers shows clearly the need for more good jobs in our economy now.
A whole generation of workers is being denied the opportunity to gain a foothold in the U.S. economy. We need real jobs with benefits. We need health care reform so millions of young workers will be protected if they get sick. And we need new policies that put people ahead of profits to make sure that something like this recession doesn’t happen again.
Writing at Daily Kos, Meteor Blades says remaking our economy requires more focus on young workers.
Even before the recession, young adults on average had more debt and lower incomes than their parents did at the same age. And that situation has worsened since the recession began.. If you’ve heard the old expression, “Devil take the hindmost,” it applies these days most directly to young adults.
These new studies confirm the results of an AFL-CIO survey, Young Workers: A Lost Decade, in which one in three young workers say they are currently living at home with their parents. About a third are uninsured, a third also cannot pay their bills and seven in 10 do not have enough saved to cover two months of living expenses. Click here to read the full report.
 |
Become a Fan on Facebook |  |
Follow Us on Twitter |  |
Subscribe to YouTube |  |
Subscribe to Blog RSS | ||||
2 Comments
Sorry, the comment form is closed at this time.
Yes, it is a serious problem that young working people can’t find jobs. The “American Dream” has turned into an “American Nightmare” for the entire working class.
Thank you, Mr. Trumka and the “leadership” of the organized labor movement. You so stupidly continue to support the Democrats and Obama, despite everything that has happened before and after Obama’s election.
Despite a Democratic President Obama, despite the Democrats controlling Congress, this unending attack upon ALL working people continues. (see the story below)
Is there ever to be a time when the AFL-CIO and organized labor realize the under the two party pro-business system, organized labor and working people will forever be screwed.
Here is a simple “five point” strategy for organized labor to empower the working people of this country, instead of forever lamenting existing conditions and doing nothing but whine.
1. Announce support for “medicare for all” and oppose Obama’s corrupt “Health Care Reform, no matter what version.
2. Announce the refusal to support the Democratic Party, completely controlled by Wall Street, bankers, insurance companies, the military industrial complex, the energy (oil, nuclear, coal, etc.) industry, billionaires.
3. Initiate a call for the formation of an anti-capitalist, pro-worker socialist political party, to represent the economic needs of all working people, organized and unorganized. Millions of new party members will inevitably become organized into trade unions as an organizational by-product of organizing workers into the new party.
4. Develop a platform for the new party to end the looting
of the economy by corporate interests, and transition the economy to filling the needs of working people.
5. Demand access to public and private mass media to allow a voice to the people’s needs. Create new pro-labor informational and educational programs to end the decades long brain-washing of working people.
Here is another story worth noting that makes the above agenda more imperative.
——————————————————————
Jobless benefits cut off for a million US workers
1 March 2010
Inaction by the US Senate last week will result in the cutoff of extended unemployment benefits and COBRA health care coverage to more than one million workers. The cutoff, which began to take effect Sunday night, demonstrates the unbridgeable social gulf between the working class and the denizens of Capitol Hill, both Democrats and Republicans.
The bill to extend unemployment benefits and COBRA coverage was blocked by Republican Senator Jim Bunning, an arch-reactionary from Kentucky who took advantage of a Senate rule requiring unanimous consent to bring the legislation to a vote before the weekend.
Bunning, who is not running for reelection, was contemptuous of the suffering that he was helping inflict on more than one million workers, including an estimated 60,000 from his home state. He demanded that Senate Democrats agree to pay for the extended benefits without creating new debt, and declared that his actions were intended “to send a message to the American people.”
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and Majority Whip Richard Durbin repeatedly called the bill up for a vote. Each time it was blocked by Bunning’s voiced objection. But the Democratic Senate leaders declined to declare his action a filibuster and invoke cloture, although the required 60-vote majority would have been easily attainable.
…
(Please read the full story here:
http://www.wsws.org/articles/2010/mar2010/pers-m01.shtml
Here’s a heads-up:
“As the $15 billion jobs bill advanced through Congress last week, the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR) said the measure included no verification mechanism to ensure that newly created jobs will be filled by legal U.S. workers.
FAIR also alleges that the bill, which was authored by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.), does not prevent employers from claiming tax credits and exemptions if the workers they hire are illegal aliens.
“It is unconscionable that while some 25 million Americans are unemployed or relegated to part-time work, the Senate is refusing to include protections that would guarantee that newly-created jobs are filled by Americans who desperately need them,” said Dan Stein, president of FAIR.
He accused Reid of “consistently” blocking any efforts to prevent businesses that receive government contracts or tax benefits from hiring illegal immigrants.
The bill is a package of tax credits and exemptions for employers who create new jobs. On Feb. 23, five Republicans, including the newly elected Senator Scott Brown (R-Mass.), joined 57 Democrats in breaking the Republican filibuster, opening the way to the final vote.”
Employers get tax credits whether the employee is legal or not so available jobs will still be going to illegal immigrants. Plug this loophole and save American jobs for Americans.