July 31, 2020 at 9:34 p.m.
Take it easy on young job-seekers
Take it to the Bank
Social media has been unseasonably depressing in recent months.
Sure, the various digital cesspools we subscribe to are never particularly happy places. But the death and economic turmoil caused by coronavirus has taken away the positive posts I’ve come to rely on to balance out the discourse and reprehensible behavior I see on the internet every day.
LinkedIn, a networking and job search site, is possibly the most positive and least contentious social media. Lately it has had the mood of someone trapped in a labyrinth.
Posts on LinkedIn usually encompass job updates, personal news and uplifting tips sent out to connections (similar to friends on Facebook) or hashtags you can subscribe to (similar to Twitter).
Since most of my connections are in their early 20s, I get excited around the end of every semester. It is usually followed by a slew of updates from my connections detailing how they graduated college and/or scored a new job or internship.
Good news on LinkedIn has been scarce. Some of my connections had internships lined up for the summer that were canceled. Others graduated college at a time when there were little to no jobs available in their desired field.
A recent post from a 21-year-old woman I’ve known for the past decade helped relate the economic magnitude of the crisis.
Like me, she graduated from Ball State University with a degree in journalism. Unlike me, she was generally at the top of her class academically.
Rather than a proud post about her plans after graduating in the spring semester, a quiet job update sneaked onto my LinkedIn feed about her starting a cashier job at Target more than two months after graduating college.
She should feel no shame for this. Her class and my age group is entering possibly the toughest job market in nearly a century. According to Federal Reserve Economic Data, college graduates between the age of 20 and 24 had an unemployment rate of 20.4% in June, 7.3 percentage points higher than any point in the past 20 years and nearly double the nationwide unemployment rate of 11.1% in June.
By that data, she’s lucky to have a job at all.
But I know the shame she might feel for not having a job in her field. For almost the first 20 years of our lives, we were told the importance of going to college, that it was the key to landing the job you want and need.
By chance alone, she graduated at a time where the likelihood of her landing a full-time entry level job in any field let alone in media was slim.
If instead of graduating last December I graduated in the spring, it is likely I would not have a job as a reporter at The Commercial Review. Possibly I could not be working at all.
Beyond me and my LinkedIn connections, there are a magnitude of students or recent graduates of high school or college in their early 20s who are struggling right now.
They may feel shame for being underemployed or unemployed. They may have taken residence at your house (or couch) and are seemingly living out the stereotype of a recent graduate who is unmotivated to find a job.
But these are different times. Employment, like everything else in the coronavirus fallout, is not guaranteed. So please be patient and supportive of young people, who like everyone else is having a tough go of things at the moment.
And if you have any good news, anything at all, post about it on social media or report it to your local newspaper. We need all the good news we can get right now.
Sure, the various digital cesspools we subscribe to are never particularly happy places. But the death and economic turmoil caused by coronavirus has taken away the positive posts I’ve come to rely on to balance out the discourse and reprehensible behavior I see on the internet every day.
LinkedIn, a networking and job search site, is possibly the most positive and least contentious social media. Lately it has had the mood of someone trapped in a labyrinth.
Posts on LinkedIn usually encompass job updates, personal news and uplifting tips sent out to connections (similar to friends on Facebook) or hashtags you can subscribe to (similar to Twitter).
Since most of my connections are in their early 20s, I get excited around the end of every semester. It is usually followed by a slew of updates from my connections detailing how they graduated college and/or scored a new job or internship.
Good news on LinkedIn has been scarce. Some of my connections had internships lined up for the summer that were canceled. Others graduated college at a time when there were little to no jobs available in their desired field.
A recent post from a 21-year-old woman I’ve known for the past decade helped relate the economic magnitude of the crisis.
Like me, she graduated from Ball State University with a degree in journalism. Unlike me, she was generally at the top of her class academically.
Rather than a proud post about her plans after graduating in the spring semester, a quiet job update sneaked onto my LinkedIn feed about her starting a cashier job at Target more than two months after graduating college.
She should feel no shame for this. Her class and my age group is entering possibly the toughest job market in nearly a century. According to Federal Reserve Economic Data, college graduates between the age of 20 and 24 had an unemployment rate of 20.4% in June, 7.3 percentage points higher than any point in the past 20 years and nearly double the nationwide unemployment rate of 11.1% in June.
By that data, she’s lucky to have a job at all.
But I know the shame she might feel for not having a job in her field. For almost the first 20 years of our lives, we were told the importance of going to college, that it was the key to landing the job you want and need.
By chance alone, she graduated at a time where the likelihood of her landing a full-time entry level job in any field let alone in media was slim.
If instead of graduating last December I graduated in the spring, it is likely I would not have a job as a reporter at The Commercial Review. Possibly I could not be working at all.
Beyond me and my LinkedIn connections, there are a magnitude of students or recent graduates of high school or college in their early 20s who are struggling right now.
They may feel shame for being underemployed or unemployed. They may have taken residence at your house (or couch) and are seemingly living out the stereotype of a recent graduate who is unmotivated to find a job.
But these are different times. Employment, like everything else in the coronavirus fallout, is not guaranteed. So please be patient and supportive of young people, who like everyone else is having a tough go of things at the moment.
And if you have any good news, anything at all, post about it on social media or report it to your local newspaper. We need all the good news we can get right now.
Top Stories
9/11 NEVER FORGET Mobile Exhibit
Chartwells marketing
September 17, 2024 7:36 a.m.
Events
250 X 250 AD