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.

Obama Economy in One Tweet

"Our drop from 8.1% unemployment to 7.3% is analogous to losing 20 pounds by cutting off a body part." — Tweet by @Travesham

Wall Street Journal explains this week's "drop" in the unemployment rate:

The unemployment rate fell to 7.3% from 7.4%, but that was mainly because another 312,000 working-age Americans left the workforce. The stunner is that the labor force participation fell to 63.2%, which is the lowest rate since August 1978... if those who have stopped looking for work were counted as unemployed, the jobless rate would be closer to 10%. — Another Jobs Lull, with the following graphic:

Looks like Obama's economic policies have cut off a whole lot of body parts since proclaiming the end of George Bush's recession.