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Nathan Jarman

Nathan Cole

English 2010

3 April 2017

Get A Job!

Why is unemployment among teens and young adults at an all time low? There a

multitude of possibilities as to why unemployment among teens and young adults is at a record

low. The main reason as to why teens and young adults are choosing to stay home is simply out

of laziness and a lack of desire and motivation to get out and get a job due to the growing sense

of entitlement that can be seen among todays rising generation. According to a statistics report

published by the United States Department of Labor (USDL) only a minuscule 53.2% of young

adults, ages 16-24, were employed during the summer of 2016. That leaves approximately half

of the population of 16-24 year olds unemployed and with no real stable income (USDL).

Historically the summer months are a time when employment amount young adults is at its peak

due to summer vacation and due to graduates entering the workforce.

With the world and all of its mind numbing information being made more readily available

to us via new age technology more and more young adults are being sucked into lit up screens

instead of putting employment as a priority. An article released by The Telegraph in 2015 shows

that young people, 16-24 years of age, are spending on average 27 hours and 36 minutes each

week on the internet (Anderson). An individual working a part time job may work approximately

20-30 hours in a given week. 27 hours and 36 minutes spent being absorbed in a screen can be

easily translated into a part time job, at say a fast food establishment. In no way is the Internet

or technology a terrible thing, it is certainly understandable to want to be connected to the world

around us. However, spending approximately 4 hours a day engulfed in it is perhaps too much.
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Years ago it was considered a great privilege and responsibility for a young person to be

able to work and earn a paycheck of their own. Young people worked hard delivering

newspapers, working in fast food establishments, landscaping, or other tasks involving basic

manual labor requirements. Teenagers and young adults only a few decades ago seemed for

the most part to understand and value hard work. Now days a plague of entitlement, selfish

attitudes, and laziness has crept into our society molding teenagers and young adults into self

focused entitled individuals versus the contributing and work valuing individuals young adults

were only a few decades ago. For example, a report issued by the United States department of

Labor Statistics showed that 16% of the work force in 2000 was made up of young people ages

16-24, in that same report it projected that in the year 2030 only 13% of the work force will

comprise young people (USDLS)

Todays younger generations are filled with entitlement, information, and endless

sources of entertainment. Due to an endless craving of entertainment young people are going to

be more and more prone to a more lethargic lifestyle. However, who is stepping up to take their

jobs and make up for the decrease in unemployment among young adults? In the year 2000

13% of the workforce consisted of individuals 55 and older, it is projected that in order to

balance the decrease in employment among young people that in 2030 a whopping 23% of the

work force will consist of individual 55 and older (USDLS). Considering the average age for

retirement in the United States is 62 this means that more than likely individuals who should

either be retired or nearing retirement are reentering the workforce.

What teenagers and young adults are going to have to eventually realize is that mommy

and daddy aren't always going to be there to tend to their every whim. It most definitely is the

responsibility of a parent, or any responsible adult for that matter, to care for and provide for

children and the rising generation. But once an individual reaches a point in life when it is

reasonable for them to begin to develop some sort of self sufficiency it should be no question as
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to wether or not they should take any opportunity they can get. It is entirely understandable that

a small portion of young people possess reasonable excuses as to why they are unable to enter

the work force. For example, a young person my be going to school full time, taking care of a

family member, or perhaps find themselves involved in a variety of extracurricular activities

making it nearly impossible to have the time for employment. For every one else though, having

to spend 4 hours a day online, completing the campaign in the latest video game, or binge

watching a favorite television show are not excuses for unemployment.

As a society we must make it a priority to instill a sense of work ethic into the rising

generation. Creating a desire to work in the rising generation can be accomplished in several

different ways. Parents can take charge and limit the amount of time children spend online.

Parents and adults can also encourage kids and teenagers to earn and save money for

something they want, such as a new car or game. Society can begin to teach young people that

they are crucial to the overall function of society as a whole and that they do have something to

contribute to the workforce. Overall, no matter how it is done, the rising generation and the

generations to follow must find it within themselves to get off of their chariots of entitlement

pulled by mommy and daddy and seek independence by finding and keeping a stable job. There

are so many benefits to having a job such as earning a paycheck, developing people skills,

learning the value of hard work, as well as learning what it means to be responsible for

something important. In a very real sense, if this issue is not addressed soon it could in major

ways have extreme negative impacts on the overall future wellbeing of not only the United

States but could negatively impact the world as well.

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Works Cited

Anderson, Elizabeth. Teenagers spend 27 hours a week online: how internet use has ballooned

on the last decade. The Telegraph 11 May 2015

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/mediatechnologyandtelecoms/

digital-media/11597743/Teenagers-spend-27-hours-a-week-online-how-internet-use-has-

ballooned-in-the-last-decade.html

Bureau of Labor Statistics. News Release. United States Department of Labor, 17 Aug. 2016,

https://www.bls.gov/news.release/pdf/youth.pdf

Mather, Mark. Lee, Marlene. U.S. Labor Force Trends. Population Bulletin, June 2008,

http://www.prb.org/pdf08/63.2uslabor.pdf

Wallace, Nick. The Average Retirement Age in Every State in 2015. smartasset, 29 Mar 2017

https://smartasset.com/retirement/average-retirement-age-in-every-state