Future of Jobs in a World that is in Perpetual Recession and its Impact on Current Generation

The End of the Good Life for the Current Generation

With the global economy mired in deep recession for the last few years, young people who are graduating from universities around the world are caught in a vicious cycle of having debt on one hand and no jobs on the other hand.

Given the fact that many students had taken on large loans to finance their education, they need decent, and well paying jobs in order to clear off the loans that they have taken. However, the job situation is anything but bright given the paucity of quality jobs in the market.

Further, students who have graduated in the United States and Europe have to contend with a war for jobs with those from Asia as the latter are rapidly taking away much of the work from the West through outsourcing because they are cheap and provide quality as well. If this is the situation in the West, the East is no better as graduating students find that the dream jobs that their seniors have managed during the boom years are now ordinary jobs with lesser benefits and lesser or stagnant pay.

Apart from this, many companies have frozen recruitment and have delayed the on boarding of those who have been selected from campuses.

Generation Y and Career and Life Decisions

The other aspect of the bleak job market is that students have to find something to do to fill up their resumes as without any work experience they are considered not eligible for jobs and they are also not treated as fresh graduates if they have graduated a year or two ago and still do not have any work experience.

In the west, many Generation Y members (those born between 1976 and 2000) are hanging on in their colleges doing assistantships with their professors hoping to add value to their resumes and they are not moving out from their parents’ house because they cannot sustain themselves with the meager income they have.

Further, they are also putting off marriage and other key life decisions like buying houses mainly because they cannot marry without some savings and they cannot take mortgages because the loan rules have become stricter and what more, they cannot pay for the mortgages. This has resulted in the present generation having stark choices as far as career and personal lives are concerned. This is one of the reasons for the wave of protests in Europe mainly led by youth since in some countries like Spain, more than half of the youth are unemployed.

Invest in oneself and add value to Society

If you are a graduating student who is in the race for jobs, you need to remember that the best thing you can do is to find some job or the other instead of being choosy.

Further, you can participate in what economists have called the emerging collaborative economy where the emphasis is on pooling of skills with your peers to add value to society. You can also use the spare time that is available to learn new languages, enroll in courses that are taught by nonprofits in the areas of community development and social technologies.

In other words, you can contribute to society in a productive manner and earn some money at the same time.

For business management graduates’, starting one’s own business, however small, is a viable option as there are avenues to raise capital provided you have a saleable idea. Hence, the overall thrust for the current generation should be on how to keep oneself occupied productively without slipping into a morose state.

Closing Thoughts

Finally, it is an undeniable fact that the current jobless growth in the West and the stagnating job market in the East would remain with us for some years to come. Hence, it is better to prepare for this scenario and for those entering college now, it is important to remember that the good life is over and hence, one has to be creative and innovative in terms of how one can invest in upgrading skills and adding value to oneself and society.