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Tuesday, November 22, 2011

Why is Unemployment Still an Issue for Young People?

The numbers are out. Have you seen them?

There are hundreds of thousands of job openings in various states across the nation. Due to a number of reasons, including an expanding technology industry and an exodus of immigrant workers in several states, employers continue to post openings for jobs to any who’ll take them…but many find no takers.

Take Alabama for instance. When their new immigration law was passed, many illegal aliens packed up and moved to other states. Interestingly, 211,000 people are still without jobs. In Perry County, the unemployment rate is 18.2% which is twice the national average. One of the big selling points of the immigration law was that it would free up jobs that illegal immigrants had taken from U.S. citizens. Yet, those citizens have not come running for the work. In a time when everyone seems to be focused on solving the unemployment dilemma—there are still jobs that go unfilled. But why?

According to Forbes magazine, “These jobs are difficult, dirty, exhausting jobs that, for previous generations, were the first rickety step on the ladder of prosperity. They still are—just not for Americans.” They’re too hard and they don’t pay enough.

For other job openings, young American’s just don’t have the skills. They either dropped out of school, or they majored in a very un-marketable degree, but either way, they feel these jobs are either too hard or they are beneath them. So they wait.

I do not consider myself a brilliant person. In fact, during high school, I would have rated myself as very “average.” But, at fourteen, I took a job as a newspaper boy, delivering papers daily, until I was legal (at sixteen), and took a fast-food job, working from 5:00 to 11:00 p.m. I was either on my bike or on my feet—building my work ethic and a resume as a teen. During college, I worked three jobs while attending classes full-time. I wanted to express my gratitude for parents who paid for most of my education.

I don’t mean to over-simplify our problems today, but maybe—just maybe—young adults need to scrap the idea that certain jobs are beneath them and go to work. Maybe they would benefit from re-tooling and getting some education in a field that is employable, even if it’s hard. And maybe—we should all recognize that these tough times are how most of the world lives all the time. It might remedy our feelings of entitlement and produce a little gratitude.

Your thoughts?

Tim

In: Culture

Wednesday, November 16, 2011

Graduates Learning Two Big Lessons About the Job Market

I read a New York Times article that got me thinking about students today. Recent graduates are learning two big lessons about the economy and the current job market in particular.

Lesson One: A larger percentage are taking jobs in the social sector, working for the government or for non-profit organizations since jobs in the corporate world are slim. The lesson: They end up doing good since the economy did them wrong.

“In 2009 alone, 16% more young college graduates worked for the federal government than in the previous year and 11% more for nonprofit groups, according to an analysis by The New York Times of data from the American Community Survey of the United States Census Bureau. A Labor Department survey showed that the share of educated young people in these jobs continued to rise last year.” Sometimes over 100 applications are received by non-profits for one position, and many are from Ivy League schools. Applications for AmeriCorps have almost tripled between 2008 and 2010. Applications for Teach for America rose 32%. It seems the spirit we saw in earlier Millennial generation kids has re-surfaced due to the sour economy.

Lesson Two: There actually are jobs available, but not in the positions graduates are ready to take. College graduates continue to discover that they are not prepared for the market that exists. In my state, our Superintendent of Education told me last week that tens of thousands of jobs remain open—but students majored in subjects that are irrelevant for the job market. For instance, the number one major that remains unemployed is psychology. The market is flooded right now with students who are interested in this field, but only the gifted ones make it.

Perhaps we’ve placed so much emphasis on strengths—we forgot to talk about opportunities and needs in the marketplace. Success comes when our gifts intersect with a real need; when our passions align with an opportunity.

Actions Steps For Students:

1. Study the opportunities and needs in your desired field of work.

2. Be willing to start at the bottom on the ladder and work up.

3. Discover your strengths but examine how they can actually be employed.

4. Don’t pursue what you can get out of a job, but what you can contribute.

I’m curious. What have you discovered after working with students and helping them find their strengths. Where do you see them fitting into our market?

Tim

In: Culture, Leadership

Saturday, October 15, 2011

Blog Series: Is Technology Good or Bad for Us?

This week, I finished up a 5-part blog series entitled,

“Is Technology Good or Bad for Us?”

Here’s an easy way to check out all the posts:

Is Technology Good or Bad for Us? – Part 1

Is Technology Good or Bad for Us? – Part 2

Is Technology Good or Bad for Us? – Part 3

Is Technology Good or Bad for Us? – Part 4

Is Technology Good or Bad for Us? – Part 5

I’d love to hear your thoughts on the subject – leave a comment below or on any of the posts.

Tim

In: Culture

Thursday, October 13, 2011

What Ever Happened to Commitment?

I have contended for three years now that we, humans, have some muscles that have atrophied over recent years. Some of our emotional, spiritual and volitional muscles just don’t get used like they did thirty to forty years ago, and they’ve shrunk.

Want an example? Take commitment.

Long term commitment is rare these days. People are more apt to job hop, drop a girlfriend, block a friend, get divorced or just plain “quit” than at any time in the last one hundred years.

In my book, Generation iY—Our Last Chance to Save Their Future, I provided some ideas to build commitment in our emerging generation of kids. If we don’t, I suggested, we will eventually see five-year marriage contracts.

Did you hear the news last week? Mexico has joined the ranks of countries that are proposing short-term marriage licenses—as low as two-years long. The reform would allow couples to choose the length of their commitment, opting out of the lifetime commitment to a partner. Hmmm. I can only imagine the conversations children will have with mom: “How long did you say dad would be around…one more year?”

Just like atrophied muscles, I think we must develop exercises for kids (and adults) to build the ability to stick with a commitment even when the glitz and glamour are gone. So, how do we work with this generation who forgets the last commitment they made yesterday, and has dozens of options in front of them today? What are some steps we can take to draw a more firm commitment from them? Let me suggest some ideas below.

1. Listen to them and affirm their dreams and goals.

2. Provide them a sense of big-picture purpose as they perform menial tasks.

3. Give them short-term commitments they can keep, and put wins under their belts.

4. Offer them realistic steps to their often over-optimistic goals. Help them prioritize.

5. Work with them to focus on one, meaningful objective and pull it off.

6. Encourage them to simplify their life, and remove some self-imposed pressure.

7. Discuss personal values with them and help them to become value-driven.

I trust you will model commitment and develop committed students under your leadership!

What do you think?

Tim

In: Culture, Generation iY

Wednesday, October 12, 2011

Is Technology Good or Bad for Us? (Part Five)

This is the final part in a blog series I am doing on technology and culture. I am musing whether it is good or bad for us.

I think the answer may be up to us.

In 2010, the U.S. Department of Education earmarked $5 billion in competitive school reform grants to aid pilot programs and evaluate best practices. Major foundations are zeroing in on handhelds for preschool and primary grade students. The students, as young as six, pick up the devices and immediately engage in solving the math games on them. When the application is in a foreign language, they’ll group up in communities of three and help each other figure out the menus. Kids actually begin teaching themselves. Teachers can track student’s progress through software on their laptops. Everyone wins. It’s a virtual “pocket school.”

“What’s at issue is a deep cultural shift, a fundamental rethinking not only of how education is delivered but also of what ‘education’ means. The very word comes from the Latin ‘duco’ meaning ‘to lead or command’—putting the learner in the passive position.”

My point is simply this.

The filter we must use when evaluating our children’s maturity is that education should stimulate life. Whether it is sparked by a teacher or by a new piece of technology, it must ignite a hunger in this emerging generation to learn and grow. Technology doesn’t have to represent “passive stimuli.” It also doesn’t necessarily have to lead to artificial maturity. We simply must choose to use it well and guide students along the way. It is my belief that education must move not only toward “student-centered learning”, but “student-driven learning.” When it is empowered by the students themselves—it will work again.

Tom Vander Ark, former executive director of education for the Gates Foundation, reminds us technology is here to stay and we better get used to it. He says “most high school kids are going to be doing most of their learning on-line by 2020. These schools are to a much greater extent going to be a blend of on-line and on-site.” This should give us incentive to figure out how to use this scenario to foster authentic maturity in our kids.

What do you think? Have you seen more constructive or destructive results from technology today?

Tim

Check out the entire series, “Is Technology Good or Bad for Us?”

In: Culture, Education, Generation iY, Leadership

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