Millennials' Employment Prospects

"Our economic struggles," writes Millennial Evan Feinberg, president of the non-partisan Generation Opportunity, "are a direct result of years of an ever-growing regulatory regime, in which reams of red tape are making steady, full-time employment for young people harder to find and more difficult to keep. ... Millennials’ unemployment crisis exists precisely because the opportunity we need and crave is being stifled by the government."

Among the job-killing regulatory examples, Feinberg cites:

• Obamacare — "a frontal assault on young adults' chances of securing a full-time job. ...  The law’s new definition of a full-time work week, at 30 hours per week rather than 40, will make part-time employment more widespread as businesses seeks to avoid financial penalties associated with the law—a process that’s already underway across the country."
• "Growing taxation on businesses—and the uncertainty about where it will stop—has left employers unable to estimate future revenue, thus limiting how much they can hire"
• Environmental Protection Agency's "regulations on coal are killing good middle-class jobs across the country."
• "Government licensing requirements [that] are keeping Millennials from starting businesses or pursuing certain careers."

The regulatory consequences for 18- to 29-year-olds:

• unemployment rate in the last four months averaged 12% -- over 16% if those who are no longer looking are included;
• only 43.6% held a full-time job in June; and fewer college-educated Millennials are holding full time jobs as well; 
• overall 53% are either jobless or underemployed relative to their education; and
• 36% are still living at home with their parents.