Isn't that a weird coincidence?

And I mean that in the most sarcastic way.

Lately I've been marveling at the rather noticeable trend of companies keeping older workers rather than workers in the 16-24 age range. I've never seen such a defined trend. But, I've only lived through a couple of recessions. The teen unemployment rate is practically 20%. Normally companies want younger workers - because they are cheaper.

The government even spent about 15 million in stimulus funds for jobs training for this demographic.

From the AP.

"Vice President Joe Biden described the Workforce Investment Act summer program as a way to keep teens out of trouble and off the streets while reinvigorating the country's summer youth employment program, which had gone dormant for a decade. But the program didn't prevent youth unemployment rates from soaring to 18.5 percent in July, the highest rate measured among 16- to 24-year-olds in that month since 1948.

"The summer program was basically half-disaster," said Andrew Sum, director of the Center for Labor Market Studies at Northeastern University in Boston. "It was too little, too late and too poorly constructed to have any lasting effect on our youngest workers."


After reading this article - the first thing I did was clench my teeth and mutter "these are the people who want to run our health care"? They never seem to tire of pushing through stuff that has less than the desired results and waste a lot of money.

Still the stark contrast of other recessions and not hiring younger workers nagged at me. So I brought it up to Mr S.

Well Snarkolepsy - He said, they did raise the federal minimum wage. If they can keep more experienced workers for the same wage. They are probably going to do that.

Oh yeah! I said. Holy crap, I'd totally forgotten about the minimum wage increase. There's been so much noise. It feels like a million years ago. Still I was curious to see how long it took for the effects of the minimum wage increase to take effect.

Looks like pretty much right away. From CNN Money.

"The federal minimum wage will go to $7.25 an hour on July 24 from its current level of $6.55, according to the U.S. Department of Labor."

I mean, it is sort of odd that the same month they raised the minimum wage, teen unemployment rates spiked. I'm sure they have nothing to do with each other. After all, minimum wage jobs were suppose to be very temporary positions. I guess now that they forced companies to raise it, those jobs aren't so temporary. Older workers are filling them and camping out.

Now that I think about it, I think that behaviour was predicted at the time the government was trying to shove it through. I just don't feel like finding the article right now. Maybe I'll add it later.