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Canadian Millennials Struggle As College Degrees Don't Guarantee Jobs (www.cbc.ca)
"CBC News is reporting on how millennials are finding that education only guarantees debt, not a stable job. Not even in STEM," writes Slashdot reader BarbaraHudson, adding "The irony -- one of the teachers touting the values of further education is herself part of the gig economy." An anonymous reader summarizes the article, which reports that 33% of the engineers in Ontario are now underemployed.
"I actually thought that coming out of school I would be a commodity and someone would want me," said one 21-year-old mechanical engineering graduate. "But instead, I got hit with a wall of being not wanted whatsoever in the industry." He's applied for 250 engineering jobs, resulting in four interviews, but no job offer, and he's since broadened his job search to the deli counter at the local grocery store, because "It's a job."
"More than 12% of Canadians between the ages of 15 and 24 are unemployed," reports CBC News, "and more than a quarter are underemployed, meaning they have degrees but end up in jobs that don't require them. The latest numbers from Statistics Canada show that the unemployment rate for 15-to-24-year-olds is almost twice that of the general population... A 2014 Canadian Teachers' Federation report found nearly a quarter of Canada's youth are either unemployed, working less than they want or have given up looking for work entirely."
The article also points out that the number of students enrolled in Canadian universities has more than doubled since 1980, from 800,000 to over two million.
"More than 12% of Canadians between the ages of 15 and 24 are unemployed," reports CBC News, "and more than a quarter are underemployed, meaning they have degrees but end up in jobs that don't require them. The latest numbers from Statistics Canada show that the unemployment rate for 15-to-24-year-olds is almost twice that of the general population... A 2014 Canadian Teachers' Federation report found nearly a quarter of Canada's youth are either unemployed, working less than they want or have given up looking for work entirely."
The article also points out that the number of students enrolled in Canadian universities has more than doubled since 1980, from 800,000 to over two million.
sorry but education takes a back seat to either who you know or who you are sleeping with or both. the hiring managers dont want to hire you if you are smarter than they are but we've known this for over 23 years.
There was a recession when I hit the workforce after university. It was tough getting a job. REALLY tough. So I did manual labour for a few years before I finally got into my chosen career's industry. This happens. In retrospect, even fresh out of school I wasn't really ready. Too many expectations beyond what my worth as an employee could justify.
Now I'm seeing more or less the same situation with the current generation. The world doesn't owe you shit, life doesn't have to be fair, and no matter how recent your education, chances are there's a grumpy asshole who is of more practical use to an employer because they can handle social interactions in a workplace and understand the way work life works, with enough experience (in precisely what their employer requires!) to more than raise their net value above an inexperienced applicants'.
The problem isn't underemployment of the youth (suck it up, Buttercup, that's how almost everyone starts while they're learning all the things schools don't teach), the problem is the jobs where they can get their real world experience are drying up and it's only going to get worse.
However, as long as there are jobs to be done by humans and humans aren't immortal, eventually older people retire, lose it, or die off and have to be replaced. Hiring will happen. If kids aren't getting hired, it's because there are less jobs overall required to maintain our currently desired economic productivity.
That's a sociopolitical issue to be resolved not by minimum wage hikes or make-work programs, but by legislating shorter standard work weeks and nationalizing health benefits. Make it affordable for employers to hire more people to do the work, make it less life-affecting for people to work less.
The goal is to make it the graduate's fault somehow. Before it was "you didn't get a degree" as the excuse. Now that he's got a degree, it's "you didn't do it right".
Otherwise, the constant mantra of "A degree is a pathway to prosperity" would have to be re-evaluated. And there's a lot of money relying on no one questioning that.
Of course 15 - 24 years olds will be over represented in unemployment statistics.
The lower age range there are going to be 15, 16, 17 and 18 year olds who are not in school or training of some kind, and who will employ them?
I have checked and school is compulsory until 16 in Canada, so any 15 year old not in school probably has some other problems in their life, making employment even less likely.
It's not surprising, colleges have been weakening their standards for graduates for a generation. For example, you can get an English degree without ever reading Shakespeare. You can't even find a rhetoric class at many universities these days, and if you want public speaking experience you're better off at toastmasters (but that was once a common requirement). Foreign language and math requirements are dropping as well. In computer science, you can graduate with a degree without ever understanding how a computer works. In some cases, I've seen CS graduates who didn't feel comfortable programming. These are problems.
Then there is grade inflation. Which is fine if it corresponded to an increase in the skill level of graduates, but it doesn't. Because of the way student evaluations work, a professor who pushes students to work harder will end up with bad ratings. Too much homework? Bad rating. Hard tests? Bad rating. Whereas the clown teacher is entertaining, and gets a raise. Over time, there is evolutionary pressure downwards.
Then of course, students want to have fun in college. If I were designing a college, it would be like a monastery. Not many people would enjoy that, I admit. However, it encourages the universities to build new facilities, rock climbing gyms and saunas and such. Which aren't necessarily bad, but you can see these universities are not competing on the quality of their academics.
"First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
Almost everything I read in this thread is "Well, I got my degree. You OWE me a job."
Might I suggest getting a degree? Your reading comprehension skills would improve to the point where you could understand no one in this thread is saying that.
Instead, they are talking about the structural problem of too many people getting degrees due to societal and government promotion of degree programs and claims of shortages.
Or more simply, no one is saying they are owed a job. They are saying "everyone claimed this was the right path, and provided statistics and money to back up that claim. Turns out, it isn't true".
Just wrong. Saying the world doesn't owe you shit is something the haves say to assuage their conscience.
Old people aren't retiring. They can't. They were sold a bill of goods in the form of 401k/IRA/whatever your local flavor is and they can't afford it. That's because a) those programs were designed by the wealthy and don't work for middle class and b) everytime the economy crashes (every 10 years like clockwork after we repeal the regulations that were passed the last time it tanked) all your savings get wiped out.
I'll take most of your last two (shorter hours & nationalized benefits) but minimum wage is a necessity. It's _never_ affordable to hire employees if you ask employers. If you let them they'll make us all slaves and use the same rationalizations you did at the start of your rant to excuse it (suck it up, buttercup).
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You can't compete with countries such as India, where half the population don't have a toilet and the average wage is $10/day.
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I hear this year after year about how college grads have a hard time finding jobs. When I got out of college, I was already well into my second decade of coding experience, and nobody wanted to hire me because nobody wants to hire a n00b with no professional experience. But I stuck to it and I took a few lousy jobs to build up my resume and get some experience. Years later, I make good money now as a dev, and I have no shortage of job offers. I feel like each generation goes through this, was there ever a group of kids that got instantly hired up fresh out of college without any effort?
There should be a final class that is mandatory before you graduate were they tell people that life isn't going to be handed to you on a silver platter, and that some degree of struggle is par for the course.
That being said, the next decade or so should really open things up in the job market as all the baby boomers really start dying in droves.
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