24 and Unemployed = Crisis
Economic woes continue to assault people of all ages in various ways, but the worse is being unemployed. Worse still, is being unemployed for more than a year and applying for a job that discriminates with: "Must have been recently employed". By far, the worsest (is this a word?) is if you are 24 or younger without a lot skills, education helps, but skills outweigh education in the end. At the other end are those 50 or more that are in same boat. For the 24 and younger crowd, their unemployment is nearly 17%, almost twice as much as for those over 25. The average amount of months for being unemployed for the <24 group is, get this, 32 months! Not weeks, mind you, months. Even among college grads, unemployment is 7.5%. If it is any consolation to those out of work, in Europe, for the same age group, unemployment is a whopping 20%, moving to Spain, think again- 41% unemployment.
The equation for everyone not working regardless of age remains the same: few jobs and too many looking for work. Yet, some fields that are having problems filling jobs are: engineers, high skilled technical workers and medical staff, scientists. Recruiters continue to state that competition is fierce for jobs. Some top jobs in high demand are those in the IT field that are in the medical\hospital sector, where many hospitals are switching over to all electronic format with computers. The IT expertise required for this is high. The average salary for medical IT professional is $114,000 a year. Candidates must have education in health care information technology yet many IT candidates do not have this specifically. Those out of work really should consider relocating to where the jobs are. Austin, Texas and Oklahoma are seeking workers.