As we look back on 2011, youth unemployment in European countries like Greece and Spain  has almost reached 50 percent, according to the Atlantic.

Meanwhile, in the United States, youth unemployment (ages 16 - 25) has decreased since January 2011 from 18.1 percent to 16.8 percent. The Reuters chart above shows European youth unemployment over the past 20 years demarcated by some economic triggers, including the Lehman Brothers collapse.

This event took a toll on the global economy, but since then, unemployment for young people in Greece and Spain has increased close to ten percent every year. Since the collapse in September 2008, youth unemployment in the U.S. has increased3 percent overall.

In Greece, you can start working at the age of 15 and in Spain at the age of 16, the same as in the U.S. These numbers represent those from the minimum working age up to 25.

According to a story in Monday's Wall Street Journal, young men have it roughest in the down economy. The WSJ reports that:

- 14.4% of men between the ages of 25 and 35 with high school diplomas are unemployed, up from 6.1 percent just four years ago.

- High school grads younger than 25 suffer even worse. Their rate of unemployment has risen from 10.4 percent four years ago to 22.4 percent today.

- According to the Census Bureau, 18.6% of young men live with their parents, the highest rate since the 60’s.

Read Turnstyle News' Full Occupy Wall Street Coverage

Delanie Ricketts, Turnstyle News

I don’t believe all big business is bad business. While I identify with Occupy Wall Street protesters’ grievances with corporate America, I have a different vision of what needs to change. I see business as our most valuable ally in the quest for social justice. And in a bad economy, I see job opportunities for myself in that world too.

I didn’t always feel that way. I knew I wanted to study poverty ever since I moved to Jakarta, Indonesia in 5^th grade. As my family and I drove to our future home, my ten-year-old self was baffled by the endless string of shacks, pollution, and people living on less than a dollar a day. I thought to myself, “Is this where we’ll be living?” But as expats, of course, we lived in a very nice, manicured condo.

Nonetheless, right outside my window poverty stared me right in the face. Why was it that I could live a life of luxury while my neighbors could not? After moving back to the United States, I knew what I wanted to do with my life. I saw myself working for an NGO to right the injustice and inequity I experienced in Jakarta. Once I enrolled as a student at the University of California Berkeley, this dream became complicated.

As part of my liberal arts major, I decided to take a business class. It was in this class that I started thinking differently about big business. I discovered, with readily available capital and power worldwide, corporations can be extremely valuable actors in the effort to end poverty, despite a focus on profits. Although many people, including some of my peers here at UC Berkeley, are skeptical of businesses that claim to be making a difference, I am optimistic. My optimism is fed by the huge amount of people I see already working towards making businesses become more socially responsible.

By Robyn Gee, Turnstyle News

The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), a think-tank that provides a forum for governments to come together and problem solve, released new data that shows female graduates outnumber their male counterparts in 32 out of the 34 member countries.

Estonia has the highest overall percentage of female graduates as well as the highest percentage of women studying STEM -- science, technology, engineering and math -- fields. (Check out Turnstyle's reporting on theories about why women are the minority in STEM-related fields.)

The United States has about as many female graduates in STEM fields as Germany and Turkey. In terms of women graduating with degrees in the Arts and Humanities, the U.S. is near the bottom of this list. In the majority of OECD countries, women are most likely to graduate in health and welfare related fields. China, oddly, doesn't have specific data for the fields that their women graduate in, according to this chart.

Via the Economist.

Talking about sex may not be the most comfortable conversation for people, but it’s definitely something young people are talking about more than ever. Students of Wesleyan University created the “I Have Sex” video as their way to protest against the cuts that would target Planned Parenthood. The video shows young people holding a sign and admitting that they are sexually active and on birth control.

Planned Parenthood provides affordable forms of birth control and contraceptives, sex-ed programs, free cancer screenings, pap smears, gynecological exams, free STI and STD testing and other health services.

In the U.S., there are certain sectors of the workforce that are very youth-centric.  We even have companies like Mr. Youth that strive to make the work environment accommodating to young people. This is not the case in Japan.  There, stark generational inequalities are pushing young people to leave the country, remain in school, or face unemployment.

According to the New York Times, the interests of older workers in Japan are protected, whereas younger workers often remain on temporary contracts without benefits and lower salaries for a long time.  In Japan, the young people have been hit the hardest by the global economic downturn.

The Times article states, “A nation that produced Sony, Toyota and Honda has failed in recent decades to nurture young entrepreneurs, and the game-changing companies that they can create, like Google or Apple — each started by entrepreneurs in their 20s.” 

Midterm elections are here!  Still don’t know who or what to vote for? The Midterm Youth Debate took place yesterday, which featured Democratic and Republican party leaders answering questions posed by youth. The debate airs tonight at 8:30 p.m. Eastern Standard Time on youthdebate.org.

Anthony Tedesco of Portable Heroes is founder and producer of the Presidential Youth Debates, and has put together a debate every year since 1996.  Since then, he’s had every presidential candidate participate.  The questions for these debates are submitted by people ages 13 - 30.  “In every debate we’ve included future voters. If you get them engaged at an early age, they are more likely to become lifelong voters,” said Tedesco.  

These are the issues that the party leaders responded to:
·      The two budget items they wouldn't cut
·      Three issues they would work in cooperation with their opposing party to resolve
·      What they will do to ensure equality and civil rights are taken seriously
·      When young Americans can expect to retire
·      What went wrong with the Gulf oil spill and how we can make sure it never happens again
·      When each party thinks we will move out of Iraq and Afghanistan
·      How both parties will work together to solve the health care crisis

You can view a written transcription of Democratic National Committee Chair Tim Kaine’s response to the question of civil rights and the Don't Ask Don't Tell policy here.

Tedesco said, “We reached out in non-partisan ways to solicit the questions - through Rock the Vote, youth media organizations, and student associations.  It’s important to tie politics to something that youth care about, and give them the information they need to make a decision.”

The November elections are just around the corner.  According to Bakari Kitwana of the Huffington Post, the 18 - 29 age demographic will be extremely important once again. However, he makes the argument, “Over the last two years President Barack Obama did not fulfill his campaign commitments to the 14 million plus young voters so crucial to his 2008 victory.”

He explains that the youth sent Obama to the White House to make change happen, and now they have to decide if he’s done enough.  Are the changes to health care, student loans, the economy, and the war in Iraq big enough signs of change?

While we can’t predict which way the elections will go, we can see the political energy still surging through young people around the country.  

The College Republicans National Committee (CRNC) has been actively recruiting new Republican voters.  “We’ve put field representatives in Florida, Michigan, Nevada, Pennsylvania, and Ohio to work with the local college representatives to recruit, train, and engage college students for statewide victory purposes,” said Rob Lockwood, Communications Director for the CRNC.

Lockwood said they focused their recruiting efforts in these battleground states and have succeeded in recruiting 25,200 new college Republicans in these states alone. He said young voters are especially important to this election.  “It’s been proven that the college years are the most formative in shaping a political opinion. Because young people voted in record numbers in 2008, it’s important to get them to the polls again. We believe young people voted for the power of personality in 2008. They were energized. They voted for hope and change.  However, neither of those has been implemented.  The only change they got is massive debt on their tab, in exchange for short term political gain,” said Lockwood.

Likewise, the College Democrats of America (CDA) are busy recruiting young people to vote.  Alejandra Salinas, President of the CDA said they have targeted certain states. “In Texas, we only had eight chapters last year.  This year we have 45,” she said.  She also cited the numbers of young voters in 2008 as a powerful sign. “We all learned in 2008 that the power is with the people who show up to vote. We elected democratic people who stood up for student rights issues such as credit card reform, health care reform, and student loan reform.  These changes have improved the lives of young people across the country,” she said.

By: Ariel Edwards-Levy

The following was broadcast on NPR's Morning Edition on August 26, 2010

When Fahiya Rashid started college at UC Irvine, she thought she knew most of the financial traps to avoid. Chatting at an LA coffee shop, she says her father's experience taught her to watch her spending.

"When he was in college, he went crazy," says Rashid. "He had, like, 18 different credit cards. He took student loans. And now he's almost 50 and he's still paying that money back. And there's not a stop to it. So he taught me, just limit yourself to one or two cards, and spend very wisely. Don’t spend money you don’t have.”

But during her freshman year, Rashid says she faced an unexpected problem.

"When you start school, they give you a whole bunch loans. They're like, 'OK, take this, take that, take this.' I was under the impression that I needed all of that money, so I said yes to every single one of them, which is a bad idea, of course."

She returned as many of the unnecessary loans as possible -- about three thousand dollars worth. Rashid figures the less she borrows now, the better off she'll be after years of compounding interest.

Problems like hers are common, says financial expert Kathy Kristof, because students aren't taught about money. "Most of them are pretty clueless when they first start college, unless their parents have really done a great job of educating them about finance all along. We just don't get much financial education in high school, and then parents send their kids off to college kind of like pushing them out of the nest."

 The following was broadcast on NPR's Morning Edition.  

Adobe Flash Player is not installed. Please download and install it to listen to audio.

(download mp3)

Intro: The national unemployment rate still hovers around ten percent. But in the African American community, joblessness is nearly 16 percent. So more African Americans have had to earn a living in the underground economy. From Los Angeles, Youth Radio’s King Anyi Howell reports.

Anyi: Jonathan Gipson is a slim brotha who is casually dressed in a t-shirt and shorts. He’s a hustler. Okay, you might be thinking he’s doing something illegal. But in the African American community, a hustler is a go-getter who makes their own way when they can’t find one. And this 27-year old is doing just that in the swirl of street dancers and costumed super heroes that descend on Hollywood Boulevard.

Ambient: Sound of Gipson selling bracelets.

Gipson’s hustle is bracelets. He sells jewelry of all colors that feature heart shapes, peace signs, and Bob Marley.

Gipson: When I first looked at them, I didn’t really see the opportunity to make so much revenue. But after being here on the boulevard so long I found that a lot of people have love for this merchandise. The more they digged into it, the more I dug into it.

Gipson sells at least 10 bracelets a day. About 50 bucks in revenue a day. And for time being, he’ s ended his search for a regular nine to five job. You hear that a lot in Los Angeles from African American males. Like Hassan Cheney. He’s a 26-year- old student at the Los Angeles Film School. He’s applied to at least 15 businesses.

Cheney: I know people with Masters’ and BAs and they can’t find work.” I see people with JOBS hustling; working full time, but on the side braiding hair, or selling cut co knives.

So what does Cheney sell?