bigmacd24

In June, i'll be 27. My contract will be up and it's a crap shoot if the department will have the budget to renew it. I have to start looking for a new job, and will probably have to go back to doing security work to get by. I have no house, no spouse, no car, and enough money in the bank to cover one month of rent. I'm luckier than most, i've paid off most of my OSAP, and i've managed to get a post secondary degree in a field that atleast has some jobs. But I can't relax. I never know what is going to be ahead of me in six months. A year long contract is the most peace of mind I can reasonably expect.

What's causing this? How is this part of us reordering our communities and society? Why at the age of 27 do I have to figure there is a 15% chance i'll be moving into my parents basement when i'm 28?

The market is also over saturated with youth who are willing to work for less as unpaid interns. This really contributes to the destruction of entry level jobs.

Many Canadian youths work unpaid internships. Some even work 'half paid' internships where an honorarium is offered in lue of pay. The half paid ones work out to about a quarter to a half of minimum wage. For university graduates.

There are fields where there is fierce competition for these internships.

There are also fields where there are no entry level positions anymore, since employers can get a steady supply of free, or near free labour.

Thanks for calling 'if you just work hard' bs. The system is broken, working hard is still important, but it doesn't guarantee you shit.

Your study has some new numbers in it that are interesting. I really liked the '1 in 3' university graduates are doing low paid low skilled work. What I wanted is a rough percentage of how many youths with university degrees are currently working in their chosen fields. It seems like 1 in 3 are doing low paying work, 1 in X are hiding in academia, getting post-graduate degrees and stacking up debt waiting for the economy to improve, 1 in Y are looking for work actively.

I would really like to know how frequent the 'go to school, get a degree, get a decent paying job' career path is working out for my generation, and how that compares against historical trends.