Hang on to that job...

I have been conversing with our younger daughter regarding her next step after college graduation. She has many ideas for what she would like to do next. Unfortunately, most are not compatible with the current economic crises. Our children have never known an environment where acres of car imports sit in ports because dealers refuse to take them because their own lots are bursting at the seams. Our children have never known an environment where store fronts will close on a daily basis. Estimations are that 20% of the stores in malls will close in the next year. They have never known an environment where their hard working father is still in the job market seven months after leaving his employment in Minnesota. His company, at that time, merged with another and we were lucky enough to sell the big home in the Twin Cities and move to our home at Lake Tahoe. (The new company that was created just filed for bankruptcy.) We are lucky in that we are not worried, like so many millions of Americans, about how to pay the mortgage. Luckily we made some good choices, and while we have definitely downsized, are comfortable. But we are in unprecedented times. One of the "headhunters" working with my husband, said yesterday, that jobs they are recruiting for are finding less applicants willing to leave jobs they already have. I'm sure that they are feeling that trying to sell a house that has lost equity, maybe leaving stock options that are underwater, and moving to the unknown is just not what they, or their families, want to do right now. People are starting to really "hunker down." Which brings me to my daughter.

Her ideas for what she wants to do next are unrealistic. They are about expanding her horizons, helping others, experimenting with job ideas, and maybe having an adventure. All actions we would have encouraged two years ago. Unfortunately, she is about to run head first into reality. She needs to maybe keep her part time job, go full time, and possibly move into another position that pays more and provides benefits, which are no longer covered through our insurance once she graduates. She will have a college education, free of loans, courtesy of her parents. But she will need to pay her own insurance, rent, utilities, cell phone, food. In other words, she will need to grow up. And she will be striking out during the worst down turn our economy has seen since The Great Depression. The world is going to be different for our new college graduates. They are going to learn first-hand that having a job, even one they don't want, is a luxury many people would love to have in this economy. They will encounter fierce competition, and many rejections. In other words, maybe they need to hang on to that part time job...