Surprise, surprise, the labor force participation rate in April for young adults between the ages of 25-29 hit a record low. Liberals continue to tout that young people are doing just fine under the Obama economy, but alas the data shows otherwise.
Young people have been the hardest hit by Obama and his leftist policies. Young Americans are the ones expected to pick up the tab for the reckless spending coming from Washington while facing an increasingly tough job market.
Each year Young America’s Foundation releases its Youth Misery Index (YMI), which adds together youth unemployment, average graduating student debt, and national debt per capita. According to the YMI at no point in recent history has life been harder for America’s young people.
Youth unemployment continues to rise; in 2013 the unemployment rate was 16.3%—now it sits at 18.1%. Obama and his liberal allies have done nothing to improve the economic situation for young people. In April it was reported that 4,280,000 young people between the ages of 25-29 are not working—definitely not something to be proud of. Under Obama alone, the number of young Americans who are not working has gone up a whopping 13.6%.
The average graduating student debt has reached a record breaking $29,400. Student debt is something most young people are burdened with when they graduate from college. How can they be expected to pay back their loans when they can’t find a job? Young people are struggling and are desperately looking for work but to no avail. Youth employment needs to be a priority for our nation’s policymakers if we expect them to be eventually become productive members of society. Young people want to be working, they want to provide for themselves, they want to be independent of government programs—but this administration simply won’t allow them that opportunity.
Obama’s presidency has been one of vast expansion of government programs, adding a staggering $6.7 trillion to our nation’s $17.3 trillion debt. Young people are those who are most affected by the rising national debt and reckless Washington spending since their individual share of the national debt is $54,483.
Obama has a shameful record when it comes to young people especially when it comes to all of his broken promises. Too many young people are out of work and one in four are living at home—how will this generation be able to prepare for retirement or save to buy a house, or achieve their coveted “American Dream?”
Young people need a champion, someone who will advocate for them in Washington. America’s millennials are fed up with empty rhetoric and liberal schemes.