Earlier this week, I posted how an article that shared a Millennial’s journey through unemployment.
Emerging adults who are unemployed (or underemployed) will not break down the door to your church office asking for help. They will not demand that the church do anything for them at all. You might not even know they [unemployed emerging adults] exist.
They do exist. If your church wants to minister to Emerging adults, then we must seek ways to make a difference in their lives.
Here is a chart recently released by the Economic Policy Institute.
Here are some highlights from the article.
- …young workers always experience disproportionate increases in unemployment during periods of labor market weakness…
- Unemployment and underemployment rates among young graduates are improving but remain substantially higher than before the recession began.
- [These high rates of unemployment]… stems from weak demand for goods and services, which makes itunnecessary for employers to significantly ramp up hiring.
- Wages of young college and high school graduates are performing poorly—and are substantially lower today than in 2000. The real (inflation-adjusted) wages of young high school graduates are 5.5 percent lower today than in 2000, and the wages of young college graduates are 2.5 percent lower.
- The cost of higher education has grown far more rapidly than median family income, leaving students with little choice but to take out loans which, upon graduating into a labor market with limited job opportunities, they may not have the funds to repay.
- Graduating in a weak economy has long-lasting economic consequences. Economic research suggests that for the next 10 to 15 years, those in the Class of 2015 will likely earn less than if they had graduated when job opportunities were plentiful.
May God lead your community to be a place that understands and is willing to do what it takes to minister to Emerging adults.
D
r. G. David Boyd is the Founder and Managing Director of EA Resources.
