By Rebecca DiFede – In the wake of the falling economy, millions of college seniors have received their diplomas and stepped off the podium into a world that has no room for them. Despite their expensive bachelor’s degrees, it seemed that there were no positions to be filled.
As such, they entered what many young 20-somethings call “funemployment”. This is a term referring to (and rather, making a joke out of) the fact that there are no jobs to be had, and so all that there is left to do is have fun because there is nothing they can do. According to interviews with some recent diploma recipients, funemployment has become the occupation for a vast majority of their graduating class.
However, as the economic climate continues to decline, many have started to lose interest in the ‘fun’. While it may seem to be a win-win situation, the turnaround from funemployed to employed is much slower than they imagined.
For people under 25, unemployment has climbed to 17.2 percent, a major jump from the 13.2 percent measured in 2008. Recent college graduates are coming to find that, after sending out applications to a multitude of businesses, their searches come up empty.
Elizabeth C., a recent graduate of Indiana University, has had a lot of trouble finding permanent work, “I’ve sent out applications, resumes, and even gone on a few interviews, and it seems that no companies are hiring. They need people to help them advance themselves, but they can’t afford to pay them, so a ton of places are basically begging for unpaid interns. But I just graduated college and have bills to pay, I can’t afford to take an unpaid internship.”
This situation is all too common among the graduates of the class of 2011, and many are beginning to blame their unemployment on Obama’s failed policies.
The blame for the inability to find a job is a direct result of the failure of government stimulus programs. A recent poll commissioned on behalf of Generation Opportunity by the polling inc. found that only 31 percent of young people 18-29 approve of the President’s handling of youth unemployment.
In the midst of all the nation’s other economic troubles, this challenge seems lost on Mr. Obama who is focused on trying to “stimulate growth” by raising taxes and further tugging at the zippers of America’s change purse. In the meantime, millions of our nation’s brightest young minds are being cast aside and forced to work unreliable and unfulfilling part time jobs that barely help pay for their day-to-day expenses, much less their rent and bills.
Probably the scariest part of being not-so-funemployed is the looming prospect of having to pay back the incomprehensible college loans that the vast majority of former students have. Hundreds of thousands of dollars cannot be paid back by flipping burgers at 5 Guys or selling graphic tees at the mall, and without any promise of a permanent employer, these recent grads are face to face with crippling amounts of debt.
As Obama continues to attempt to make his case for re-election, the “funemployed” who were formerly his most enthusiastic supporters, now wonder what the heck they were thinking as they face the reality of Obama’s failed stimulus.
Rebecca DiFede is a contributing editor to Americans for Limited Government.
