New college graduates have an average annual starting wage of $27,000, an amount that is hard to live off and down $3,000 from 2007. In order for professionals to make a higher wage in the new economy, Â LZ Granderson says “hustlers” will become the norm, in the article “The fastest-growing job in America.”
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Only 54 percent of Americans between the ages of 18 and 24 are employed, according to the Pew Research Center. As unemployment among young adults grows, so does the amount of college-educated youth who decide to continue living with their parents. According to the article, “The Go-Nowhere Generation,” the number of young adults living at home nearly doubled between 1980 and 2008.
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A new program in Baltimore aims to bring more technology to the classroom by bringing technologists, educators, and students together to become a community of technology trainers and experts, according to the article “Closing the Loop Between Students, Teachers, and Technologists.”
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Some schools choose to ban technology, saying it’s not that complicated and kids will learn it later. Other classrooms fully embrace technology to open windows to new worlds, including their own. But for many schools, financial restraints make the choice for them. Recently a group of inner-city students from Los Angeles who were fated with a technology depleted school decided instead of accepting their circumstances, they should set out to to start a revolution and change them, according to the Mind/Shift article “Students Demand the Right to Use Technology in Schools.”
The average employee admits to spending two hours a day doing non-work related tasks, according to the New York Times article “Overwhelmed, And Prone to Procrastinate.” What are they doing? They’re watching YouTube, checking Facebook, Tweeting, Pinning, Stumbling, and doing anything else they can find that will keep them away from finishing that dreaded email, phone call, or next phase of their project.
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America’s unemployed youth each take $40,000 a year from the economy and cost the government $14,000 in taxes, according to the article “What Does One Jobless Youth Cost Taxpayers? $14,000 a Year.” The “lost generation” is projected to cost taxpayers $437 billion over the next five years, and possibly $1.15 trillion in their lifetime.
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The recession has changed the way many Americans live, causing some to file for unemployment, go back to school, relocate, or downsize. The economic downturn is also showing effects of changing how the next generation of young adults will adapt to the changed economy they are inheriting. According to the NPR article “US Jobs Between Young And Old Is Widest Ever,” a new study by the Pew Research Center shows, in record numbers, young adults are choosing to live with their parents longer and delaying marriage to raise kids out of wedlock, if they choose to have them at all.
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Are great leaders born or made?
A new study suggests it may be both. The study that followed 106 students from the age of one through 29 found those who became leaders in their adult lives shared some common traits, but that educators and parents can also encourage leadership in students. The study hopes to help educators and parents identify leaders early on, as well as help identify which behaviors to look for and support, according to “From Math Helper to Community Organizer: New longitudinal studies identify key factors in leadership development.”
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Dropping out of high school doesn’t only effect the individual. While students who drop out of high school will personally have less chances of employment, make lower incomes, and are most likely just a piece in the poverty cycle, they also represent a huge drain on our economic potential. On a larger scale, high school graduates and dropouts shape our economy, define the abilities of our workforce, and set the stage for our leaders of the future in business, industry, and government.
Advances in technology have always come at the price of taking jobs, and we can expect them to continue taking even more. “As they say, if horses could have voted, there never would have been cars,” writes Thomas Friedman in his article “Average Is Over.”
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