The Hill reports today, “President Obama is making a concerted effort to recapture the support of young voters who have grown skeptical of his administration. Obama will visit three college campuses in swing states this week, where he’ll try to appeal to young voters by urging Congress to pass legislation to prevent interest rates on subsidized student loans from doubling to 6.8 percent this summer. He’ll appear at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, the University of Colorado at Boulder and the University of Iowa, where he’ll make his student loan pitch before large audiences of the country’s youngest voters.”

Just yesterday, the AP reported, “The college class of 2012 is in for a rude welcome to the world of work. A weak labor market already has left half of young college graduates either jobless or underemployed in positions that don’t fully use their skills and knowledge. . . . About 1.5 million, or 53.6 percent, of bachelor’s degree-holders under the age of 25 last year were jobless or underemployed, the highest share in at least 11 years. . . . Out of the 1.5 million who languished in the job market, about half were underemployed, an increase from the previous year.”

Late last year, MSNBC wrote, “Their employment prospects are dim, their debt is high, their lives are on hold and a stunning number are living with their parents, even into their 30s. They are young adults, 18 to 34, struggling to begin their adult lives during the worst economy since the Great Depression . . . .”

According to a February TIME story, “[n]early 25 million adults live at home with their parents because they’re unemployed or underemployed” and a recent Pew survey found, “Roughly a quarter of adults ages 18 to 34 (24%) say that, due to economic conditions, they have moved back in with their parents in recent years after living on their own. Among those ages 25 to 29, the share moving back home rises to 34%.”

The same Pew study found “[y]oung adults hit hard by the recession… [T]he gap in employment between the young and all working-age adults—roughly 15 percentage points—is the widest in recorded history. In addition, young adults employed full time have experienced a greater drop in weekly earnings (down 6%) than any other age group over the past five years.”

No wonder then that ABC News reported on Friday, “A survey released Thursday showed that only 34 percent of 18-to-24-year-olds are ‘satisfied’ with the Obama presidency. More than half – 51 percent – said they were either ‘disappointed,’ ‘worried’ or ‘angry,’ according to the survey from the Public Religion Research Institute and Georgetown University’s Berkeley Center.”

Comments

comments