Are You Working in the Field You Trained For?

A recent Brookings Institution report on youth unemployment says the northern New Jersey area (lumped in with New York & Long Island) is one of the worst in the country for employment for people aged 20-24, which would include many recent college graduates.

The report indicates that many young people are accepting part-time work when they want full-time, and forced recent college graduates to accept jobs that don’t require a degree; of course, many are going without a paycheck altogether: nationally, the employment rate for 20-24 year olds fell from 72% in 2000 to 60% in 2011. Because of this, young people aren’t getting the experience they need to land better jobs down the road; according to the Brooking Institutions’ Martha Ross, “Work begets further work. If you miss out on early work experiences, it is harder for you to get a foothold in the labor market."