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It s the fight of a generation. In this corner, weighing in at42.5 million people, with a 12.3 percent unemployment rate and $294 billion of combined student loan debt, wearing skinny jeans andheadphones: 20 to 29-year-olds. And in this corner, tipping the scale at 36.9 million people, with anunemployment rate of 6.6 percent and a median household networth of $162,000 , wearing Crocs and a pair of bifocals: 55 to 64-year-olds. Lets get ready to rumble. This isn t exactly what s happening in the jobs arena. More accurately, generationsare fighting each other from within for work. A 24-year-old is morelikely to compete with a peer for a job than with a 60-year-old.But in terms of who has it worse, old or young workers, it s worthmeasuring the differences between the two age groups to see whichis more in need of help. A recent report by the Government Accountability Office comes down on the side ofeasing the plight of older workers, more than 50 percent of whomhave actively sought a job for more than half a year. As a result,the GAO recommends a handful of policies, including offeringsubsidies to businesses that hire older workers, expanding jobtraining programs for seniors, and compensating workers over 55 whoaccept lower-paying jobs. In a recent OpEd for the New York Times, Dean Baker of the Center for Economic Policy Research and KevinHassett of the American Enterprise Institute point out just howdevastating unemployment can be for older workers, leading tosignificantly higher rates of death and illness. Also, once theylose a job, older workers have a much harder time getting back intothe workforce. The policy challenge is harder for olderworkers, says Hassett in a phone interview. Although youngerworkers get fired more, they also get hired more. Older workerstend to see only the downside of that churn, says Hassett, partlybecause businesses are reluctant to make long-term investments inthem. If you hire a young guy and invest a lot in his training,you have his whole career to recoup that investment, saysHassett. If you train an older guy, he might retire in a fewyears. Yet there s evidence that the real jobs crisis is taking place ageneration or two down the food chain. Unemployment rates for youngAmericans are significantly higher. Teenagers looking for work have about a 25 percent jobless rate.For black teens, it s about 40 percent. Unemployment consistentlygoes down as age goes up. Not only are young people coming out ofcollege with an increasingly heavy burden of student loan debt;they re coming into a job market where they re less likely toearn enough money to pay that off in a reasonable time. That has far-reaching consequences. Today s young workers arelikely to have lower earning (PDF) potential over their careers, and their inability to pay offtheir student debt will keep them from buying homes and cars and awhole lot of other stuff that helps juice the economy. In a paper released last week, Manhattan Institute senior fellow, and formerDepartment of Labor chief economist, Diana Furchtgott-Roth offers acounterattack to the GAO recommendation, arguing that compared withyoung people, older Americans have it made. From 2002 to 2011, thenumber of employed people aged 55 and older grew by 8.9 million,leading to an overall increase in labor force participation rateamong older workers. They re the only group that s made jobgains over the last 10 years, says Furchtgott-Roth. That slikely as much a function of necessity than choice, as many seniorssqueezed by a busted housing sector and sagging retirement accountshave been forced back into the work force. To Furchtgott-Roth, at least they re working. And at least theyhave wealth, even if more of it is going toward helping out theiryoung-adult children. Not only are older Americans better off thanyoung people today, they were wealthier as young people 30 yearsago. A November 2011 Pew study shows that in 1984, households headed by people younger than 35were 68 percent wealthier than in 2009. At the same time, Americans65 and older are 42 percent wealthier today than in 1984. The lackof jobs and ability to accumulate wealth is creating a big socialproblem. We re creating a generational gap that s widening, andwe re failing to build the future for this younger generation, says Furchtgott-Roth, who worries that we re undercutting thevalue of education by lowering its return. Economist Richard Fry, co-author of the Pew study, says its tooearly to say the value of education is being undercut. The marketstill pays a heavy premium for educated workers, he says, if not inwages paid, then certainly in the way it punishes workers without acollege degree. Still, he s concerned about the consistent lack ofemployment for young people. Work-force participation among youngadults has been declining since the 2001 recession. Part of thatcan be explained by younger workers going back to school. But evenwhen you control for that, there s still some evidence thatemployers are favoring more experienced workers over youngerones, says Fry. Things have definitely gotten more difficultfor younger workers. Does that mean they re worse off than older workers? Notnecessarily. In the opinion of AEI s Hassett, it s not a faircomparison. Both situations are terrible, but their problems aredifferent. We are high quality suppliers, our products such as IPL RF Elight , China RF Cavitation Slimming Machine for oversee buyer. To know more, please visits Lipo Laser Machines.
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