Employment Trends

I received a newsletter today at work with some interesting information about employment trends in the United States. Some news was good, but most of it was very disheartening and once again, it made me sad to think that my generation, Gen Y, is in such a terrible state when it comes to getting a job and/or how they are perceived as being a part of the workforce.

Here are some of the facts:

1. Dating in the workplace is losing its taboo status with 38% of workers admitting to dating a coworker at least once in their career. My own parents met in the workplace and their offices were next to  each other for 30 years! Awww... Adorbs. And to top it, over a whopping 18% of these folks admit to dating their supervisor! Scandalous! This takes mixing "business with pleasure" to a whole different level, am I right or am I right? (Research was conducted by CareerBuilder - 2/9/2012).
2. According to managers and HR professionals in the workplace, "professionalism" is extremely poor, especially among young employees. David Polk, PhD, whose firm conducted this study stated, "Business and HR professionals say young employees need to learn to conform to "current standards" of professionalism rather than the standards be modified in response to larger society changes." The top four qualities associated with unprofessionalism are appearance, lack of dedication, attitude of entitlement and a poor work ethic. (Research was conducted by York College - 1/2012)
3. The majority of individuals are increasingly unhappy with their current job position. Over 60% of respondents said they were actively looking for their next job, and only 11.7% said they were really happy with their current job. 19% reported that their job wasn't awful, but not great, and nearly 4% said they weren't sure how much longer they could tolerate their current employer. (Research conducted by The Ladders - 2/10/2012).
4. Fewer young adults have jobs now than any other time since World War II. According to a Pew Research Center report, 45.7% of people between the ages of 18 and 24 are unemployed, with the employment gap between young adults and other adults at an all-time high of almost 15%. While college attendance is part of this equation, the fall in employment has not corresponded with increased enrollment. This trend has caused many young adults to postpone marriage, delay having children and move back in with their parents. (CNN - 2/9/2012).

So once again, it's with a heavy heart that I have to express some deep concern for my generation. What is wrong with our society that we're not learning how to behave in the workplace and be taken seriously as a professional and more importantly, that we can't seem to find a way to give our young folks a chance in the job market.

I wrote a post a while back on some more input regarding this trend among Gen-Y... I'd love to start an internship program at my job or even work with young people some day to try and offer guidance on getting into the professional realm and build a career for themselves.

Tough stuff to read about, but hopefully someday I can help make a difference.

Happy Tuesday!

The Teenage Mind

I read an article yesterday afternoon in the Wall Street Journal over my lunch hour about the teenage mind. The article went into scientific explanations about why so many teenagers and young adults...

a. Make dumb decisions even though they are "book smart" and have all the facts and fully know the consequences of their actions. Example: A young girl knows that if she has unprotected sex, she could get pregnant, but does it anyway and finds herself pregnant.

b. Seem to be wandering aimlessly through much of their 20's and unable to settle down or establish themselves physically or emotionally. Example: Most young Americans are unmarried until their late 20's, even early 30's and are waiting longer and longer to have children, if having children at all.

The scientific explanation of this was the delayed development of the frontal cortex of the brain - which is the portion of the brain involved in decision making, particularly decision making that comes from rational explanations we reach on our own from things such as past experiences. Bottom line being, experiences form us and teach us about what to do and what not to do. How can we actually know the truth unless we try it ourselves?

For years now our high schools and colleges have been preaching to us to get a "well-rounded" education, hence the reason for taking your "generals" prior to actually getting into the nitty-gritty of your chosen major, which by the time you get through your "generals" you don't even know if you want to pursue your chosen major anymore because you've had so many other ideas thrown at you...

This "well-rounded" education is making us smarter, yes, no doubt about that, but it's causing serious delay of this crucial development in the brain because no one is getting any experience nor do our institutes of education require any experience until senior year, which is usually in the form of an internship that lasts less than 6 months - well, laddy-friggin'-da - see how a 6 month internship looks on a resume for getting a "real" job - no one will give a hoot.

My generation in particular, "Gen-Y", has been most affected by this educational phenom. People are in college and have no clue what they want to do with their lives because they aren't getting and hands-on experience in college. Some are smart and start internships or job shadowing early on, but most aren't so lucky.

Not only is the job experience seriously lacking, the emotional commitments are also lacking with many roaming from mate to mate, dating a lot of different people, but never really diving in deep enough to make a serious commitment either because they don't know how to commit or they just simply don't want to be emotionally involved. I think there are a lot of different reasons for this development, none really convinced me in the article, but I'm sure it does have something to do with this delayed development of the frontal cortex since we are remaining more "emotionally immature" as a result.

An interesting read to say the least...

All for now - hopefully I've provided some interseting insight for your Tuesday!