Today, millennials are the future, even if only as a matter of time. However, policies in Washington aren’t reflective of this reality. High unemployment or underemployment has left many young people looking for jobs or working in jobs that, in earlier generations, would otherwise have been deemed below their skill level. While many will say certain economic factors are unchanging, we should re-dedicate ourselves to making the future brighter for millennials who will lead our community and our nation in the not so distant future.
As it stands, according to the Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforce, about 40 percent of the unemployed, the largest group of those unable to find work, are millennials. Unfortunately, the overall millennial unemployment rate, including people no longer looking for work, is 15.2 percent, according to Generation Opportunity. Many, if not the majority of millennials, are college-educated individuals who desire to work in the fields that they were trained in, yet circumstances outside of their control prevent them from securing employment.
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Student loan debt has hampered millennials’ ability to figuratively launch. At over $1 trillion, student loan debt eclipses credit card debt and has delayed many major life events for millennials, such as buying a home. Unfortunately, it is still an open question whether the housing market and the American dream of home ownership will recover from the millennials’ experience during the Great Recession and whether millennials will choose to forgo home ownership in order to pay down their existing educational debt, or if millennials will find creative and innovative ways to make their American dream a reality. It is no exaggeration to say that the challenges millennials face have likely placed our economy in a worse long-term position than in previous generations.
Given the challenges millennials of any age or ethnicity face in today’s job market, it is time for Washington to get serious about solutions that will yield positive long-term results for tomorrow’s leaders. First and foremost, we must cut needless regulations and simplify the tax code so that employers can have the extra money to hire new workers who can contribute to our economy now. Also, in our new globalized economy, millennials have proven that sometimes being your own boss is the best way forward. I’m proud to have worked with my colleagues on bills that spur entrepreneurship and innovation, because if we’re serious about tackling 21st century problems, then we need 21st century solutions.
We also need an informed youth who know what student loan debt will mean for their short- and long-term futures. Without full financial literacy and fully transparent student loan documents, we will continue to handcuff future generations to a ball and chain that many will not discharge until the end of their days. Millennials have proven their resiliency time and again through creative solutions to economic and political problems in spite of some barriers they did not anticipate.
Without a strong foundation upon which to build our nation, we will inevitably find ourselves in a position where we take two steps back in order to take one forward. All millennials deserve an economy that works with jobs that are plentiful and the ability to grow in order to improve our nation. I have no doubt that millennials are capable of achieving great things if they are allowed to innovate and thrive. With policies that achieve this, hopefully millennials will say there’s no place they’d rather be.
