Review of "Jobless Turn to Work Helping Others" In a perfect economic situation nobody would face unemployment, but we don't live in a perfect world. In an ever-changing economy, there are good times; and then there are not so good times. If I learned anything about economics from this article, it would be to make the most of the good times; and do what you can in the less than good times. This article describes two twenty-something workers who found high paying jobs when the economy was booming in the late 1990's, and then lost those jobs in recent corporate layoffs. All was not lost because they found jobs where business is still booming.
Michael Cagan, age 27, was working for the well known brokerage company Charles Schwab when he got the pink slip last September. Around the same time Hattie Washington, age 26, lost her job as an administrative assistant at TeleCheck International.
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English: Selected Characteristics of Occupations D...
English: The Frances Perkins Building of the U.S. ...In December they were both hired at Money Management, a non-profit firm that provides nationwide credit counseling. Now they teach others what they had to learn about managing their finances. Cagan had a mortgage payment of $522 and a new salary, which was 40% less than what he was making. Washington had credit card debt of $3,000; she enrolled in Money Management's debt reduction program herself in the hopes of one-day qualifying for a home loan.
According to U.S. Department of Labor statistics, about 1.15 workers ages 16 to 24 lost their jobs when employment for that age group was peaked at 20.8 million jobs in December 2000. Over about the same time period the workers age 25 and over suffered a loss of 1.5 million jobs after hitting a peak of 115.3 million jobs in March of 2001. It seems that younger workers have it...