The unemployment problem hits closer to home

When my son Logan was nearing his 15th birthday, he expressed how excited he was about being able to get a job.

After some research on the Iowa Work Force website, we found out 15-year-olds can work, but need to get a Certificate of Age through the Work Force office. And there are the following stipulations, they can work outside school hours, between 7 a.m. - 7 p.m., from the day after Labor Day (in September) through May 31, and no more than four hours per day, Monday through Friday, or eight hours per day on Saturdays, Sundays and holidays. No more than a total of 28 hours per week is allowed. From June 1 through Labor Day, a minor may work up to eight hours per day between 7 a.m. - 9 p.m., but not more than 40 hours per week.

It was obvious to me that the scenario of a 15-year-old being able to go out and quickly get a part-time job was not as easy as it was 23 years ago.

When I turned 15-years-old in 1986, I got a job at a fast food restaurant. A majority of the staff, were other high-schoolers or young adults in college.

One big difference, I wasn’t applying for the job at the restaurant along with lots of other people, of all ages, young and old.

The United States Bureau of Labor Statistics states the rate of unemployment in 1986 was 7.0 percent. Compare that to today’s rate of employment from the Bureau of Labor Statistics; 9.5 percent. The number of unemployed persons is 14.7 million.

Since the start of the recession in December 2007, the number of unemployed persons has increased by 7.2 million, and the unemployment rate has skyrocketed 4.6 percentage points.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics had this break down. In June the unemployment rates for the major worker groups-adult men (10.0 percent), adult women (7.6 percent), teenagers (24.0 percent), whites (8.7 percent), blacks (14.7 percent), and Hispanics (12.2 per-cent)-showed little change. The unemployment rate for Asians was 8.2 percent, not seasonally adjusted.

Among the unemployed, the number of job losers and persons who completed temporary jobs (9.6 million) was little changed in June after increasing by an average of 615,000 per month during the first 5 months of this year.

The number of long-term unemployed (those jobless for 27 weeks or more) increased by 433,000 over the month to 4.4 million. In June, three in 10 unemployed persons were jobless for 27 weeks or more.

The numbers are staggering. In May, one month after Logan turned 15, my 19-year-old stepson Chris, was laid off from his job. Since then he’s been applying for jobs everywhere.

Logan’s begun to understand that he is up against other applicants, who are older and have some experience.

To me it’s clear; the job market is suffering severely with everyone from every age group feeling painful ripples throughout their financial pocket books.

Michelle Lingle is a general assignment reporter. E-mail her at news@redoakexpress.com.