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.” 

President Barack Obama welcomed students back to school yesterday with a motivational speech in Philadelphia.  The speech was aired nationwide.

President Obama spoke for twenty minutes about what an education means in today’s world.  Not only does an education mean more now than ever he said, but students carry heavier burdens than they should, as the country deals with the recession and the war in Afghanistan. He recognized that students might sense this tension in their parents and guardians.  

But he urged students not to scale back their dreams. “The farther you go in education, the farther you will go in life,” he said.
Obama told students that their success will determine America’s success.

Watch the whole speech here. 

Money….it’s something I need right now. A job is something I pray for every night before I go to sleep. Reality: I don’t have a job that pays money. When I think about that, sometimes it makes me feel like I’m a failure. When my mom was 16 she had a job at McDonald’s. I have applied so many times and so far I’ve only had one interview and that was two months ago. I called to follow up every three days; I even sent additional copies of my application. Every time, they tell me they don’t have any available hours. I felt like a fisherman in the desert. Read more...

Every month, the Federal Bureau of Labor Statistics publishes an update on the employment situation in the U.S. They just released their July Employment Situation report today.

Here’s the breakdown of the employment / unemployment situation for 16 - 19 year-olds today. The statistics are in three categories: Unemployment, Civilian Labor Force Participation, and the number of full-time employed youth.

Unemployment Rate [The number of 16-19 year-olds who are actively trying to get a job, but do not have one.]
* In July 2010, the unemployment rate for this age range is 26.1 percent.
* Since January 2010, the unemployment rate for youth has remained essentially unchanged, hovering around 25-26 percent.
* At the beginning of the recession (December of 2007), the unemployment rate was 16.9 percent. This means that the unemployment rate has increased by 10 percent since the beginning of the recession.
* Ten years ago in July 2000, the unemployment rate was 13.4 percent. Wow.

By Marco Salazar, Youth Communication

My father immigrated to New York from Ecuador in 1990. It was a myth in Ecuador that everyone who went to the U.S. returned to Ecuador a wealthy person. My dad knew it wasn't exactly true, and that he would have to work hard to achieve financial stability. But he also knew that even menial jobs in the U.S. paid more than most professional jobs did in Ecuador, and that there were minimum wage laws here that would guarantee he earned a certain amount.

He arrived with reasonable hopes, yet when I look at him 20 years later, I see my dad still struggling financially. I wanted to know how that happened and what he had to say about the recession taking away any stability he had, so I interviewed him for this story.

From College to the Factory

In Ecuador, my dad studied architecture for three years. Before he'd completed his degree, my grandmother stopped paying his tuition, and he couldn't afford to complete college on his own. So when he applied for and received a visa to the U.S., he thought, "What do I have to lose?"

Arriving in New York, he moved in with his cousins in Brooklyn. He had $3,000 that his mother had given him, but to his dismay it went quickly in this expensive city. After about three weeks he was almost broke after paying for food, rent, and other expenses.

He quickly understood that pay was higher here because prices were so much higher. In fact, the ratio of expenses to pay was about the same as in Ecuador. My dad began to wonder if he should have stayed in Ecuador, but he didn’t have enough money to travel back.

Although he’d studied architecture, he had to settle for a menial job here because his partially completed degree meant nothing in the U.S. He spent four months working at different factories, wishing he didn’t have to work so hard. His hands had blisters at the end of the day and the pay was poor.

The third annual Outside Lands festival, held in San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park, has been shortened from three to two days after fewer tickets than expected were sold following the announcement of the concert’s lineup on June 1st. No more Friday the 13th, the concert will now begin Saturday, August 14th.

By: Dione Lien

When I was in high school thinking about college, the encouragement I got was "You can go anywhere. Money shouldn't be an issue." So when I started working as a college advisor, I imparted the same advice to motivate my students. I could get away with it several years ago, but lately I feel like I'm flat out lying.

What happened to one of my students this school year is a constant reminder that money is an issue. She got into UCLA, but her financial aid wasn't enough to cover her living expenses. She had to move out of the dorms and live with friends. Looking back, I had no idea her financial aid package wasn't going to meet her needs - or that her Mom couldn't make the family contribution.

So now I'm more careful. I have to ask: "Has anyone in your family saved for your college tuition? Is there anyone you can ask to help with expenses?" I find myself running numbers on cost of living, rent, and school fees, which I never did before.

Hassan Cheney is a hustler.

It’s not what you think. Yes, the term “hustle” can mean making money illegally. But it also has deep roots in the African American community. Being a hustler is to earn money on any product or service you can offer.

“I see people with jobs hustling; working full time, but on the side braiding hair, or selling knives,” Cheney says, from his South Los Angeles neighborhood. “The hustle only lasts for so long. I’ve seen certain people with the same hustle go out make hundreds of dollars a day and (other people) only make 10 dollars.”

Twenty six year old, Cheney, hustles his music instrumentals. He needs the money to pay rent and tuition. Cheney is a senior at Cal State Northridge. His homework these days, however, consists of only one thing: finding a job.

“From the Valley to LA, I’ve been filling out applications wherever I can find a job,” Cheney says. “I know people with Masters and BAs and they can’t find work.”

Cheney definitely has his work cut out for him. Even before the recession, African Americans experienced higher rates of unemployment than any other group in the nation. But the wounded economy has worsened the job situation. The national unemployment rate hovers around ten percent, while the rate for blacks is at 16.5 percent.

The issue caught the attention of the Congressional Black Caucus. It wants President Obama to do more for the African American community. CBC Chairwoman, Barbara Lee (D-Ca) released a statement this month in response to a January jobs report.

 Aired on American Public Media’s Marketplace on February 26th, 2010. Lauren's commentary is part of a three-part Youth Media International series for Marketplace.  Has the economic downturn changed the way college graduates feel about Wall Street?  

(download mp3)

By Lauren Silverman

A few years ago I secretly dreamed about working on Wall Street. I used to picture myself in a pinstripe business suit strutting past the Charging Bull before the opening bell.

Working there seemed cool. It was like working for the company that makes the blackberry – before the iphone…or working for Enron – before the bankruptcy.

I remember one day. It was August of 2009 right before the crash. I was interning for a big non profit. I went out to meet up with some friends who all worked in the same field as I did…and then I met a girl who was working in a whole other world…She had an internship with Goldman Sachs.

I tried not to choke on my coffee. Goldman Sachs was my Lady Gaga. She was working on some big corporate buyout --- but of course, she couldn’t say much – the information was “classified.” She got to work at 7:00 AM each day, and from the way she talked about stock analysis I imagined she knew how to use Bloomberg analytics like an elementary school calculator. To me, she was the queen bee, and I was just one of her workers.

Then the bailouts happened… And I changed my mind about Wall Street like that.

I remember watching the bailouts and bonuses fiasco from my desk with the other interns on TV and yelling at the screen. We were furious – I mean red in the face. Those companies seemed to throw around money like paper airplanes. Employees got their bonuses for losing big. And they didn’t seem to care about the risks they took.

Now, I know things are getting a bit better for the finance industry. I know banks have paid back some of the government bailout money. I know some investment firms are hiring again. But there’s a permanent cloud lurking over Wall Street and a bad taste that’s still in my mouth. I don’t feel envious about those queen bees anymore. Chasing the Wall Street dream left plenty of those workers without a hive.

So you won’t find me dreaming about a job on Wall Street. Most my friends feel the same way. The big financial institutions need to work on their reputation before my generation signs over ours.

Rachel Krantz produced this audio postcard from a meeting of the Ethics Society at the NYU Stern School of Business.

The story aired on Marketplace Morning Report on February 25, 2010.  The piece is part of a three-part Youth Media International series for Marketplace. How has the recession changed the way business school students think about ethics?

My name is Janice Shay and I'm currently the co-president of the Stern Ethics society. I had this marketing internship my freshman year and I was doing the book keeping for them and I saw a lot of the things they were doing, in terms of expenses... I knew it was just the executives of the company just having dinners, but they counted it as a company expense. So I didn't think that was very ethical. But at the same time, I was just a freshman. And I didn't have very much power and I was just an intern.

MEETING SOUNDS: You can give them pressure and say if you don't agree to hear you are going to end up in the unemployment line.

I'm Terence Tabili, I'm a senior here at NYU Stern. I study business management with a specialization in entrepreneurship. On my spare time I run my own company.

MEETING SOUNDS: We can get them in the middle of the room and we can say "a" or "b"? Where do you go?

Terrence: Our company--we actually had a product that we had to deliver to a client but we found out it was defective really late in the process. If we did tell them there's a problem with it, they said that since they were on a tight time schedule that we would suffer a big penalty. I think it was 2000 dollars a day. So in the end we decided to fess up and the company gave us an extension to finish the project, so we weren't charged a penalty and we were able to correct the problem. And when I brought this case to the Stern Ethics society they kinda chose the same thing, though some kids were kind of sketchy about it and said they would hide it.

MEETING SOUNDS: But lulu, did discuss world com. We had choice "a" and "b". What would you choose?

JANICE: With our club, if we're telling them these situations, hopefully they're learning from that and they don't do that in the future. Because they're the future, they're the next generation so in the future they encounter any ethical dilemmas they'll think-- this is what happened with Bernie Madoff, this is what happened with Enron. Hopefully that resonates in their minds when they go out in the workplace.