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Moses Sternstein's avatar

fn. 2 is unfinished!

would love to pair this with a look at new-hires and openings for the kinds of roles that used to hire young grads. As in, is there some particular landing spot that's become closed or stressed, or is it something else? That might help answer the question: is this a precursor to something deeper and darker, or is it specific to the BAs of our particular time and place.

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Guy Berger's avatar

I just completed it! I need to proofread better :)

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Moses Sternstein's avatar

Ha, don't we all.

Just fyi, it still ends ". . . that the increase in re-entrants primarily reflects folks who"

Maybe the update hasn't flowed through yet?

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Guy Berger's avatar

For some reason the 2nd footnote is cut off (despite being supposedly complete when I try to edit)... in case it never properly refreshes, here it is

"In my opinion this also casts some doubt on the thesis that the recent increase in re-entrants primarily reflects folks who lost their jobs, stopped looking and have since resumed. Some of this may be going on but it’s not playing a big role at present."

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Steve's avatar

I'm not great at containing scope. My mind immediately jumps to wondering about 3 additional components I think play into this:

1. AI - It seems that consumer demand hasn't waned much (maybe that's finally changed, but many economists, pundits, and normies expected it to wane for the last few years...) so productivity is still important. Has AI spend and implementation been used by employers at all levels to justify hiring freezes and/or layoffs?

2. Covid's impact on the workplace - It has been described that the biggest "loser" for the WFH and Hybrid work model has been new hires / youths that are trying to build their career. Does that play here?

3. Employees becoming business owners - The final really weird thing that comes to mind in the post-Covid era is the massive surge in new business applications: https://www.finder.com/small-business/new-businesses

I'd be very interested in seeing those topics explored within the context of US Youth's Employment Environment.

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