One thing that I have no trouble with is expressing my opinion and I have a lot of them. Today, because in the blog challenge our assignment is to write an opinion piece, I’m going to give my opinion on the job situation in the United States as it relates to youth.
I have a rule not to discuss politics in public too often as it usually has no bearing on my work. Except that the current lack of employment for our youth weighed very heavily in my decision to change my business to focus on empowering teens and young adults to develop an entrepreneur mindset.
People are screaming at President Obama that he hasn’t created many jobs since being in office. However, in the first quarter after the stimulus bill that he signed, the number of new jobs created was the highest it’s been in 30 years? It’s just that so many jobs were lost during the eight years before he took office that it was impossible to create enough new jobs.
Also since he took office, the rate of the jobs lost has slowed so while jobs aren’t being created in large enough numbers, a lot of jobs have been saved and that’s something to be happy about.
And now with the worst congress we’ve had in my lifetime, the situation is worse and apparently, we might be headed for an even bigger recession. Some on the right try to blame the high rate of youth unemployment on the Democrats for raising the minimum wage, however that is ridiculous. The minimum wage has been raised periodically to help people as the cost of living rises. If I were into assigning blame, I’d say the congress blocking all efforts to move forward to repair the economy in the name of politics is at fault.
When there are so many people out of work, we have folks with college degrees and a lot of experience vying for the same job that would normally be held by a young person. That doesn’t bode well for our teens and young adults when it comes to being employed.
With that said, I believe that the only way many of our youth are going to be able to make a living is to create their own jobs. This requires a mindset that will be a challenge to develop in some cases. For whatever reason, we have a generation of children that are more hyper, have shorter attention spans and are easily distracted. Often they have can’t hold a job once they find one for a variety of reasons.
We need to find a solution to this major issue of our time or we’re going to have a large portion of young adults unemployed, on social welfare and eventually, living with their parents, who in some cases aren’t much better off, or homeless.
It is incumbent upon us to encourage and support our children in developing an entrepreneur mindset as well as help them find the skills they need for marketing and doing business in the digital age if they are to have any hope of being financially self-sufficient. The mindset is so important that I just wrote an ebook to help parents and others who work with teens and young adults to help them start thinking like an entrepreneur. The book, Powerful Lessons Empowering Teens and Young Adults to Develop an Entrepreneur Mindset, will be on sale September 1.
What are you doing to help your children develop an entrepreneur mindset and prepare for the future?
