With unemployment in the United States at an all time high at 9.7 percent, everyone is struggling under this recession. The New York Post reported that 52.2 percent of young Americans are unemployed. Beating a World War II record high, young Americans are stuck with little answers and even less direction. Most of them aspire to move out of their parents home and find jobs that will ultimately lead into careers. However, finding a job now-a-days is about as auspicious as landing heads on a coin flip a 100 times in a row.  


Former Assistant Labor Secretary Al Angrisani was quoted in an interview stating:



 “There is no assistance provided for the development of job growth through small businesses, which create 70 percent of the jobs in the country. All those [unemployed young people] should be getting hired by small businesses.”   If each of the businesses hired just one person, we would go a long way in growing ourselves back to where we were before the recession,”


 The young American population is a crucial group, necessary to help keep the American economy productive and successful. Unfortunately, the lack of work in the United States has made job opportunities abroad quite popular. Most young Americans do not support a family nor struggle with large amounts of debt and are flexible with their surroundings, making them the perfect candidate for such opportunities abroad.


 Young college graduates are taking their skills elsewhere and moving to countries such as China where jobs are flourishing. 22 -year-old Mikala Reasbeck from West Virginia was tired of working at a drug store for $7 after graduating from college that she decided to find work elsewhere.



 “I applied for jobs all over the U.S. There just weren’t any,” said Reasbeck, who speaks no Chinese but had volunteered at the 2008 Beijing Olympics. In China, she said, “the jobs are so easy to find. And there are so many.”


 These young individuals are the bright future of America and job creation should take precedent in President Obama’s agenda in order to secure America’s future. The Heritage Foundation stated in a blog that the Baucus health care bill may actually kill jobs.



“5.2 million jobs at risk, because current wages minus the cost of the mandate would be less than the minimum wage.”


The United States should be an advocate for job creation and growth and not risk losing more jobs for the American people.


What will happen if we fail to tackle this issue head on?  Studies like the one from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth stated that:



 “The damage to a new career by a recession can last 15 years. And if young Americans are not working and becoming productive members of society, they are less likely to make major purchases — from cars to homes — thus putting the US economy further behind the eight ball.”


This will just be the beginning of ongoing problems that will affect the United States. Every little setback toward the American economy will be detrimental to its future. Every issue has its value and importance, like job creation for young Americans. If we fail to fix this urgent issue what will come next? And after that?  Unemployment is only a fraction of the issues affecting the American economy. Like the snowball effect, once these issues pick up speed, it will get harder and harder to stop them and the American people cannot afford that catastrophe.