As a child my parents told me, “Go to college and get a well-paying job so you can support us when we are old and wrinkly.” It seemed so simple. All my life I thought that if I continued with my studies until I eventually graduated, I would be set. A job would be waiting for me the minute I stepped off my campus with my degree. The harsh truth is that no job is waiting for me when I graduate. In the United States today, adults between the ages of 18-34 account for half of the 10.9 million people unemployed. Finding or even keeping a job in this market is not a simple task, and there are many reasons for this.
Colleges are teaching us the skills. We are learning how to do the technical work, how to solve an equation or memorizing definitions. The problem does not seem to lie in the skills that must be put to use in a job; the problem is how we implement these skills. A survey done by St. Louis Community College shows us that 60 percent of employers said that applicants are lacking communication and interpersonal know-how. This is why the applicants are not being hired. Not because we don’t know how to do the work, but because we as a whole do not know how to work together. We become so focused on the grades and technical aspects of college that we forget successful work requires collaboration and communication. Employers value both “hard” technical skills and “soft” interpersonal skills equally, but our generation is very one sided.
The next problem has to do with how we are paid. Recently minimum wage has been a huge topic of controversy in the United States. Many feel that minimum wage should be increased because the current standard does not provide enough to survive. Although true, raising the minimum wage and just minimum wage in general is a huge problem. If one cannot survive off what they make if they are making minimum wage, they might be forced to be unemployed. This raises unemployment and hurts the economy tremendously. More people will be out of jobs, the flow of money in the economy goes down, businesses sell less and it just becomes an overall mess.
From this arises another issue, automation. With minimum wages not being sufficient for low-wage workers, calls to raise the wage are made clear. Companies do not want to pay more than what they already are paying for the same work so they are looking towards other options, specifically robots. Companies are finding it cheaper to automate tasks that are normally done by humans because instead of paying hourly wages, they are paying only cents to keep a machine running with electricity. A robot doesn’t get tired, wont make mistakes, can work endlessly and won’t even complain! It becomes not only a cheaper option but also a more efficient one that helps the company but hurts the workforce. This raises unemployment and increases competition for higher-level jobs which both harm the workforce and those who are really trying to get a job.
It is not as easy as it seems. Getting a job and keeping one becomes harder and harder as we move into the future. If we don’t make a change now, it will only get worse.
References:
http://www.cnbc.com/id/101373230#.
http://valuesandcapitalism.com/minimum-wage-good-intentions-bad-policy/
I like your statement, “There is no job waiting for me.” It sounds deep and dramatic and caught my attention. As far as minimum wage goes, I think the argument you put forward makes sense but some aspects could be made clearer. For example, you mention that if people make minimum wage but cannot survive or live comfortably off of that wage, then more people will be unemployed, this will hurt the economy, and this is the reason we should raise minimum wage. I got this impression while reading your piece although you may have meant something else. I don’t think the argument I presented just now is valid though because lower wages don’t necessarily mean fewer jobs. Rather, it means more suffering for the people who are trying to get by on some jobs. Some statistics of unemployment and wages can make your argument more convincing. Also, something you can research about if you’re interested is what kinds of things is the minimum wage connected to. What permits its acceptable rise or decline? Why not raise the minimum wage? What is the impact of minimum wage on the economy? Also, how many minimum-wage jobs are there and what kinds of jobs are those? How do people earning minimum wage or less than that survive? I read in a newspaper that one woman took three minimum wage jobs to support her family and she was extraordinarily overworked and stressed. Anyways, I found your piece to be interesting and informative.