.

It has been five years since the official end of the Great Recession in the United States, and yet young people are still reeling from its effect. About 5.8 million young people are out of work and out of school. Throughout the country, unemployment for young people reaches as high as twice the national unemployment rate. Clearly, an entire generation has been devastated by the economic crisis. But while young people face serious challenges, they also stand to take advantage of some incredible opportunities.

There are many factors influencing the youth unemployment crisis. Globalization has created a massive amount of new labor but not a commensurate increase in jobs, because the education system has taught young people to be job consumers instead of job creators. While this labor explosion has happened practically overnight, the shift in mentality to becoming job creators is a slow, incremental process, resulting in our current employment imbalance. A globalized economy means young people are competing for jobs on a world-wide level. In 2009, U.S. multinationals employed 10.3 million people outside of the U.S. That’s a phenomenon that never really occurred in the pre-globalization era, and young American workers have been slow to catch up to this new reality.

Another often overlooked reason why young people are squeezed out of the workplace is that the financial crisis forced many older workers to hold onto their jobs longer than they would have under better circumstances. Before the Recession, the number of people who voluntarily left a job was as high as 3.1 million a year. In 2009, that number was halved to 1.6 million. As a result, the rate of job openings is not what it once was, and new entrants into the job market are at a major disadvantage.

This also has another important side effect: workers are getting their first jobs much later in life. As a result, by the time they do enter the workforce, they lack an intuitive nature of professional conduct. ‘Soft Skills’ like customer service, being cost conscious with company resources, or even showing up on time, do not come naturally to many young workers. This delay in workplace maturity is costly to companies and to the young workers who mean well but are struggling to hit the ground running in their careers.

Further changes in consumer behavior related to the financial crisis also contribute to youth unemployment. A widespread lack of confidence in the economy means people are spending less money. Also, the internet has enabled a number of efficiencies that lower expenditures for customers, but also reduce the need for labor—at least in the short term. For example, instead of buying a car, you get a Zipcar or Uber. Instead of paying for a hotel room, you use Airbnb.

So with relatively few labor opportunities out there, the question young people should ask is: Where are the jobs?

Unfortunately, young people are not always properly quipped to answer this question because universities are not as career-oriented as they should be. The skills gap—the distance between the skills workers possess and the skills employers actually need—exists because universities and employers are largely operating on two separate tracks. Universities are not held sufficiently accountable for the career success of their graduates, and that needs to change. Both educators and employers need to be on the same page in order to provide students with employable skills that build a healthy pipeline of workers with training relevant to 21st century jobs.

So where are we poised to see major job growth?

I think energy is at the top of the list. We depend on energy like never before, so careers in the domestic production of energy, energy recycling, and alternative energy research will be huge in the years to come.

Health care is another important area. Policy changes present enormous challenges and opportunities for the new generation, such as reducing healthcare costs while increasing quality. Regenerative medicine, preventative medicine, and other efforts to stop healthcare problems before they happen will help improve the quality of life for millions of people while reducing our country’s entitlement costs.

Infrastructure and transportation will also play an increasingly important role in the national and international economies. Building and maintaining our roads and railways, managing air traffic and shipping, and developing better aerospace technologies are all brilliant opportunities for young workers. For our economy to expand, America needs to once again be a powerful exporter, so now is the time to start thinking about how we will get U.S. goods into more foreign markets.

There are also great opportunities within government work. Transparency, data management, and cyber security are important national discussions, and are also critically important career opportunities. We desperately need innovators to create new efficiencies for the governmental system to streamline workflow and pass savings along to taxpayers.

Lastly, the way we approach education is changing, which means we need forward-thinking innovators to improve how we learn. Today, the challenge educators face is not a scarcity of information but rather too much information, so the management and customized delivery of knowledge will play an important and changing role in our educational system.

These are just a few examples of the jobs of the future and I believe young people need to take the lead in creating these jobs. American youth have all the tools that they could ever wish for to take control of their own futures. These include access to information, capital, customers, labor—they have access to all the means of production. So what’s stopping them?

I say we need to encourage young people to take the plunge and give job creation a try. Let’s create a cultural enthusiasm for being a job creator. This is the right approach to reducing the skills gap and solving the challenge of youth unemployment.

David H.S. Pattinson is Founder of David Pattinson’s American Future (DPAF). A former television reporter and producer, he has been featured internationally in outlets including Forbes, The Plain Dealer, Chicago Sun-Times, The Daily Telegraph, Roll Call, and CBS Washington.

This article was originally published in the Diplomatic Courier's January/February 2015 print edition.

The views presented in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily represent the views of any other organization.

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How to Address Youth Unemployment and Reduce the Skills Gap

January 22, 2015

It has been five years since the official end of the Great Recession in the United States, and yet young people are still reeling from its effect. About 5.8 million young people are out of work and out of school. Throughout the country, unemployment for young people reaches as high as twice the national unemployment rate. Clearly, an entire generation has been devastated by the economic crisis. But while young people face serious challenges, they also stand to take advantage of some incredible opportunities.

There are many factors influencing the youth unemployment crisis. Globalization has created a massive amount of new labor but not a commensurate increase in jobs, because the education system has taught young people to be job consumers instead of job creators. While this labor explosion has happened practically overnight, the shift in mentality to becoming job creators is a slow, incremental process, resulting in our current employment imbalance. A globalized economy means young people are competing for jobs on a world-wide level. In 2009, U.S. multinationals employed 10.3 million people outside of the U.S. That’s a phenomenon that never really occurred in the pre-globalization era, and young American workers have been slow to catch up to this new reality.

Another often overlooked reason why young people are squeezed out of the workplace is that the financial crisis forced many older workers to hold onto their jobs longer than they would have under better circumstances. Before the Recession, the number of people who voluntarily left a job was as high as 3.1 million a year. In 2009, that number was halved to 1.6 million. As a result, the rate of job openings is not what it once was, and new entrants into the job market are at a major disadvantage.

This also has another important side effect: workers are getting their first jobs much later in life. As a result, by the time they do enter the workforce, they lack an intuitive nature of professional conduct. ‘Soft Skills’ like customer service, being cost conscious with company resources, or even showing up on time, do not come naturally to many young workers. This delay in workplace maturity is costly to companies and to the young workers who mean well but are struggling to hit the ground running in their careers.

Further changes in consumer behavior related to the financial crisis also contribute to youth unemployment. A widespread lack of confidence in the economy means people are spending less money. Also, the internet has enabled a number of efficiencies that lower expenditures for customers, but also reduce the need for labor—at least in the short term. For example, instead of buying a car, you get a Zipcar or Uber. Instead of paying for a hotel room, you use Airbnb.

So with relatively few labor opportunities out there, the question young people should ask is: Where are the jobs?

Unfortunately, young people are not always properly quipped to answer this question because universities are not as career-oriented as they should be. The skills gap—the distance between the skills workers possess and the skills employers actually need—exists because universities and employers are largely operating on two separate tracks. Universities are not held sufficiently accountable for the career success of their graduates, and that needs to change. Both educators and employers need to be on the same page in order to provide students with employable skills that build a healthy pipeline of workers with training relevant to 21st century jobs.

So where are we poised to see major job growth?

I think energy is at the top of the list. We depend on energy like never before, so careers in the domestic production of energy, energy recycling, and alternative energy research will be huge in the years to come.

Health care is another important area. Policy changes present enormous challenges and opportunities for the new generation, such as reducing healthcare costs while increasing quality. Regenerative medicine, preventative medicine, and other efforts to stop healthcare problems before they happen will help improve the quality of life for millions of people while reducing our country’s entitlement costs.

Infrastructure and transportation will also play an increasingly important role in the national and international economies. Building and maintaining our roads and railways, managing air traffic and shipping, and developing better aerospace technologies are all brilliant opportunities for young workers. For our economy to expand, America needs to once again be a powerful exporter, so now is the time to start thinking about how we will get U.S. goods into more foreign markets.

There are also great opportunities within government work. Transparency, data management, and cyber security are important national discussions, and are also critically important career opportunities. We desperately need innovators to create new efficiencies for the governmental system to streamline workflow and pass savings along to taxpayers.

Lastly, the way we approach education is changing, which means we need forward-thinking innovators to improve how we learn. Today, the challenge educators face is not a scarcity of information but rather too much information, so the management and customized delivery of knowledge will play an important and changing role in our educational system.

These are just a few examples of the jobs of the future and I believe young people need to take the lead in creating these jobs. American youth have all the tools that they could ever wish for to take control of their own futures. These include access to information, capital, customers, labor—they have access to all the means of production. So what’s stopping them?

I say we need to encourage young people to take the plunge and give job creation a try. Let’s create a cultural enthusiasm for being a job creator. This is the right approach to reducing the skills gap and solving the challenge of youth unemployment.

David H.S. Pattinson is Founder of David Pattinson’s American Future (DPAF). A former television reporter and producer, he has been featured internationally in outlets including Forbes, The Plain Dealer, Chicago Sun-Times, The Daily Telegraph, Roll Call, and CBS Washington.

This article was originally published in the Diplomatic Courier's January/February 2015 print edition.

The views presented in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily represent the views of any other organization.