Only 55 percent of young Americans have jobs, lowest since WWII

I'm 35, watching the years tick by. Almost 3 years have passed and I still can't get a job. I can't even utilize my Bachelors Degree because i'm so consumed in trying to merely feed myself. What a life I have.

well i am 70 and i have 3 grandchildren living with me ,they are great kids,the boys have looked for jobs ,the teen girl baby sits when they can afford to pay her they do ,but if they can't she will babysit while they work anyway,they know how hard it is to get by,i try not to gripe at them except for letting me know where they are,they are great little troopers,if we got the money for something thats fine and if we don't thats fine too, all their friends that i no are respectful when they come to the house,usually someone there every day,sometimes a whole bunch of them,usualy if i am doing something they pitch in and help,so don't bash the kids they try some of them are trying a heck of a lot harder than you think,they didn't have a darn thing to do with the state of things,i love you kids NANNY

This is true.. Some of these companies wants people to have a batchlors degree just to answer phones. Some of these job posting are idiotic that I have came across and its hard for us (16-29 yr old) to even get a decent job that can be our career.

I'm 18 and have been trying to get a job since I was 16. The only place that even called me back was mcdonald's, and by the time they actually called me for an interview they were only giving me 3 days a week. I haven't been able to find anything since. Everywhere I apply they say I need more job experience. My question is, how am I supposed to have job experience if you won't hire me?

If you don't have a job, it would be insane to get married or buy a house. Everybody keeps saying young people are shirking responsibility of adulthood. They are making responsible decisions by not spending money they don't have. And the divorce rate is steadily increasing and over 50%. If you get married, chances are you will get divorced, and that costs a lot of money, too. So how does this equal being lazy or immature?

If the Economy wasn't in so much pain this would not be the case. By the time I am old enough to draw social security there wont be anything left yet I am paying it. I mean lets be honest. Our president stayed at war for much of the wrong reasons. That added to our debt in this country. Now we have a president who is bailing out company's and yet there CEO's are making enough money to feed there family and ten more on top of it and still live a very nice life with a great retirement pay. Company's everywhere panic on the the problem in America and laid off hard working individuals who live from pay check to pay check. Did company's ever think about starting from top to bottom and take pay cuts that would keep your business and employees far away fro being laid off. Having priorities in America has lost its way, point blank.

Ross Perot said this would happen. Too bad nobody listened to him.

well maybe if entry level jobs didn't require 2+ years of experience, we wouldn't be having this problem. /bitter 20-something

now who was it that said outsourcing jobs would be a net gain for the USA?

I am glad we do have a home and can let our kids move back in if they need to. This is really a sad article about the state of affairs in our country. Thank you Politicians.

downturn, recession, if you have a truthful count of the unemployed, it will show that we are in a full blown depression and no sign of a turn around in the near future. And with the cooperation that Obama is getting from the house and senate it is turning our country into turmoil and we are fast becoming a second rate nation. The house of cards nearly fell a couple of years ago, the next time it will fall!

What is with these comments "liberals are like this...conservatives are like that..." It makes no sense. These blanket generalizations, this "Us vs. Them" attitude is literally tearing America apart! We're ALL in this muck together. We need to unite to get our country out of this mess. We're not opponents. We're fellow citizens, and ALL our lives will be better when we ALL have more opportunities.

The "American Dream" is over. You will no longer be guaranteed a job, house, wife, kids and a dog just because you are over 25 and graduated college. With the lack of jobs due to globalization and the overinflated price for a college education, it is impossible to support oneself for years after finishing school. The U.S. will become like most of the other countries in the world, you will live with your parents until you are over 30 or getting married. This is the last generation that will have the opportunity to "become an adult" right after college.

thank you china and all the wall street gurus who gutted our manufacturing base for a short term increase in profits.

If our congressmen can do it, why not our kids?

The basic reality for the young is that 1) the job security enjoyed by those in the last half of the 20th century is gone, 2) a shrinking economy means fewer jobs, 3) globalization means fewer jobs, 4) a rising population means fewer jobs. Add to this the rising cost of education (requiring debt for many in college) and the statistics that those without a college education are all but completely screwed in the job market.

We're in trouble here. The discussion should not be about how some people are lazy. The discussion should be about how to fix this - because this IS a problem and it IS getting worse.

I'm part of the generation this is talking about, and it is really no surprise, especially in my area. Seeing all the comments from the older generations saying "Just get up and do something" and "stop crying" need to know what you're talking about. I was fortunate to have a job at one time, but it closed down in the darkest days of the recession. Now, in the "Resort" area I live, there is just nothing. Apps out every week to ANYONE who will take them, and nothing for well over a year now. Yes, some are just lazy and don't make an attempt to find anything, but there are a lot of us that are fighting daily to even find the hardest jobs. I'm sure all of your generations had the same kind of useless people that plagues every generation. Don't be so #$%$ judgmental. It just shows that your age means nothing when it comes to maturity.

I'm 24, and I work two jobs just to support my parents who have been out of work for almost 3 years now. I can't really afford to just move out and leave them with nothing.

I'm almost 18 and I've been searching for a job ever since I got my work permit at 16! I get straight A's, I have a prepaid cellphone which I use to call my mother, I volunteer at the hospital, and I am CPR certified. All of you people who are saying the younger generation is clueless and such, please remember that some of us are being held down because of the incompetence of others. I cannot speak for my peers, but I would jump at the chance to work anywhere, even Mc Donald's.

$8 per hour part time, is not a real job. And thats what there counting as jobs. What a joke.