Gloomy economy, underemployment making US graduates waiters, bartenders
WASHINGTON: Michael Baum took every substitute teaching job he found and has sent out hundreds of resumes since graduating from college two years ago. He never got a full-time offer and works as a waiter in a pizza parlour in Chicago, earning $650 on a busy week.
"It's discouraging," said Baum, 25, who is certified to teach in Texas and North Carolina as well as his native Michigan. His pay is just enough to cover basic living expenses.Baum has joined the growing number of underemployed graduates in the US, in an election year when both President Barack Obama and presumptive Republican challenger Mitt Romney are vying for young voters with promises to restore jobs.
Underemployment isn't debilitating only for individuals whose career and income opportunities are stunted. It threatens the economic expansion as college-educated young adults have traditionally fueled consumer spending on clothes, technology, entertainment and cars.
"If you have a stumbling entry into the labour market, you risk getting stuck in jobs for which you're overqualified and poorly paid for the rest of your life," said Katherine Newman, a sociologist and dean of the school of arts and sciences at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore who has studied the long- term effects of underemployment.
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