While various news outlets tout the decrease of unemployment number to 7.7 in an effort to pat Obama and each other for a job well done, the details of November unemployment numbers reveal something truly frightening. The breakdown according to ages shows that older Americans are going back work and cannot afford to retire, while the 24-54 age group are being booted out of the workforce. Look at the image below: jobs gained were in the 54-69 age group while there was a huge loss of jobs in the age younger age group.
1 comment:
The questions, I think, are slightly different: what if they do have a family and have had a career up till this point? They have a mortgage to pay, 2 car loans, kids educational bills (because even if their kids are in public school, everyone realizes the only prospect for them to be employed in the future is a college diploma, and for that they need tutors, &&&). In order to make themselves marketable in a rapidly "jungleized" job market they need to invest in self-training ($$$software, courses they pay for out of pocket, as they no longer have employers doing it for them) and into maintaining their physical form (gym, eating balanced diet - expensive when you don't have constant income). And then here comes biggest budget item of all: medical expenses. Try to pay cash for your family's doctor or god forbid hospital bills...even if they decide to buy insurance plan, they are only eligible for "individual" rates, it's prohibitively expensive and doesn't cover much.
Forget "saving for retirement". Forget "vacations".
Forget "pursuit of happiness".
Our "age group" have been living in survival mode for 4 years, and it rabidly becomes the mode for the whole country.
PS
V, do you read your email?
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