Young, Gifted, and Unemployed

We've heard a number of stories about people who are out of work over the past year. Families on the edge of foreclosure, retirees who’ve lost their life savings, and people starting again from scratch.

The young and the unemployed have it easy in comparison. Or maybe not. The youth job market has lost 2 point five million jobs to the financial crisis. Among 16-to-24 year olds, unemployment is now just under 20 percent, leading to articles bemoaning "dead end kids," or “the lost generation”.

Lizzy Ratner, is a freelance writer whose reporting on the young and out of work is pulled together in an article called "Generation Recession" for The Nation. We're talking with her as part of NHPR's Working It Out project.

Have we changed as a result of the economic downturn? That's the question behind the Working It Out project this week. Jon Greenberg will pick that question up in a live Working It Out special this Friday at noon on NHPR.

The Nation: Generation Recession

The New York Times: Generation OMG

BusinessWeek: The Lost Generation

Guardian UK: One in Six Young People Not in Work or Education

Social Issues Research Centre: Generation Recession (pdf)

(Photo courtesy Kate Gardiner via Flickr/CreativeCommons)