Will you get a job?
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In June, 2009 Kyle Daley graduated from UCLA with a
3.5 average. He applied for 600 jobs, mostly entry-level
positions in large corporations. He got two interviews
but no job. He was not alone. In 2010 the Labor
Department reported that nearly 11 percent of recent
college graduates were without jobs, the highest rate
on record. Because two-thirds had taken out student
loans averaging $23,200, many considered bankruptcy.
Daley and his age cohort had grown up during the
most prosperous decades the American nation had ever
witnessed. But it all came crashing down in 2008. The enor-
mous hot-air balloon that was the U.S. housing market
burst. Worldwide financial markets, tethered to U.S. mort-
gages, fell precipitously. Major investment firms declared
bankruptcy. Others, deemed to be “too big to fail,” were
saved in free fall only by an infusion of taxpayer money.