Amy Rosen at Forbes has a post about how the economic leaders of the world are starting to focus in on a problem we have been focusing on this site: job creation. Specifically, how do you create jobs for the emerging young work force. As we have noted before, there are just not enough jobs for all the young people entering the workforce, and this problem isn't limited to the US. Countries like India have not been spared from the recession, yet young people every year enter the economy looking to be part of the workforce. Many will be disappointed at the mediocre jobs that are available, and many others will fail to secure any paid employment and must rely on family, friends or the state for support. This youth unemployment represents a true tragedy as moldable young minds atrophy in their prime. This will only compound in the future as those who fail to fully enter the workforce early are forced to catch up all their lives, putting their eventual children in potentially the same spot.
Amy makes the case that entrepreneurship and helping people make their own jobs may be one solution. I applaud her, and others, efforts, but I wonder if that may be a solution for some youths but not all. When we are talking about the young, for any nation, only a fraction are truly equipped to be entrepreneurs. Many more could, with proper training, but one of the best training programs to making your own job is a job in the first place. This gives people a source of independent revenue, perspective on an industry, and an opportunity (possibly) to try ideas out before they have to completely own their own successes and failures. I wish Amy good luck in Davos as she pushes this issue, and hope her solution is at least tried. Any efforts to resolve this issue is far better than the status quo.
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