Summer Job Struggles, New Activist Investors, and Obama’s Peace Plan
Here’s What You Need To Know
With the unemployment rate for 16- to 19-year-olds down to 14.3 percent from a high of 27 percent in 2009, and 41 percent of employers reportedly planning to hire temporary workers for the summer, teens looking for summer jobs have some of the best chances of landing one since the early 2000s.
Yet a recent Bureau of Labor Statistics analysis found that only 43 percent of 16- to 19-year-olds were either working or looking for a job. This figure is ten points lower than in 2006, and almost 30 points down from nearly 70 percent in 1989. With projections showing the teen labor force participation dropping below 27 percent by 2024, there are many theories about why the teens aren’t working like they once did.
- Blame The Boomers: Some argue teens are suffering from the trickle-down effects of older Americans now working past 65 at the highest rates in more than 50 years. While most older Americans putting off retirement are not holding the entry-level jobs teens would otherwise be taking for the summer, they do hold the jobs that more junior employees would hope to be promoted to. So, by remaining in the workforce, older workers may be limiting the advancement of younger employees all the way down to teenage temporary workers.
- Blame The Immigrants: Another argument is that teens are competing for fewer and fewer of these types of temporary, low-skill jobs against immigrant labor. A 2012 study found that less educated immigrants actually impact employment for native-born teenagers far more than their native-born parents.
- Blame The Markets: Northeastern University labor economist Alicia Modestino also points out that the typical teen jobs are drying up – or in other words, “think Blockbuster.” Between the dramatic decline in the retail economy – where many teens were hired as temporary summer workers – and the automation of unskilled labor jobs, the markets are cutting down on the industries where temporary, unskilled work is a viable business strategy.
- Blame The Overscheduling: Finally, there is the argument that teens and their parents are simply prioritizing different things. It is probably true that some teens are simply lazier and spending their summers simply not working, but the biggest shift in priorities seems to be coming from college-bound teens and their parents focusing on volunteer opportunities and extracurricular activities geared toward building attractive resumes for university admissions offices. In July of last year, more than two in five 16- to -19-year-olds were enrolled in summer school – not for failing classes, but rather to earn college credits or build out their academic profile.
Whichever theory or combination of theories is true, many have expressed concern over the non-monetary benefits teens may be missing by not pursuing or being able to get a summer job. They argue these work experiences offer teens perspective on the world outside of the rigid structure of school and home, teach the importance of managing money before there are necessarily serious consequences, and prepare teens for dealing with bosses and co-workers of all ages.
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There may not be direct economic consequences of this trend at the moment, but building a generation of workers for whom their first real work experience comes at the age of 22 or older may very well present problems in the coming decade.
News You Can Use
GROWTH OF CONSCIENCE ACTIVISTS
Activist investors have used their pressure tactics on corporate executives and boards almost exclusively in the pursuit of profits. Yet, a new crop of these investors is now using these same tactics for another purpose: forcing companies to consider social good. Firms like Arjuna Capital are showing up at shareholders’ meetings to pressure tech firms to improve their gender pay equity gap and demand oil companies adopt more environmentally friendly policies.
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This concept of social conscience investing isn’t necessarily new, but the level of activism is. Corporate executives, who previously only worried about activist investors going after bloated C-suite salaries and inefficient business practices, must now make sure they are not vulnerable to socially conscious corporate raiders who could derail a business strategy with ideological agendas.
LIFTING THE VEIL ON OBAMA’S PEACE NEGOTIATIONS
The Israeli newspaper Haaretz recently released two documents outlining the Obama Administration’s work on the 2014 Israeli-Palestinian peace talks and how they fell apart. Two key revelations came out in these documents. First, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was essentially willing to accept the 1967 borders as a basis for negotiations. Despite this willingness, Obama Administration negotiators refused to accept the draft due to Netanyahu’s demand that the phrase “territorial contiguity” not be used in the document.
Second, U.S. negotiators were willing to go a long way to appease Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas. After a draft had been carefully negotiated with the Israeli government, Abbas expressed, “anger and disappointment” with the wording over the issue of Jerusalem. In response, U.S. diplomats quickly crafted an updated version of the document that tilted a number of issues toward the Palestinians and was not reviewed by any Israeli representatives. As ill-fated as the Obama Administration’s attempts were to negotiate peace, these documents offer the Trump Administration an excellent model of how not to approach Middle East diplomacy.
MIGRATION OFFERS NO GUARANTEES
Historically, when Americans have needed a new job, they have picked up and migrated to where jobs are more prevalent (usually large, urban centers). But, Princeton University economic historian Harold James suggests those workers in the rust belt communities of Michigan, Wisconsin, and elsewhere may not be able to rely on this traditional path to the middle class.
James explains how, unlike previous generations who could secure employment after migrating to cities with the skills they already had, today’s unemployed do not possess the skills to secure the jobs they would be migrating to. The study suggest policymakers will have to adopt new approaches to addressing unemployment and lack of upward mobility within these communities.
$1 BILLION CONTEXT ON QATAR
After several key Middle Eastern nations cut ties with Qatar last week, revelations of a $1 billion hostage deal negotiated between the gulf state’s government and a group of terrorists provides some context into the motivations behind the seismic diplomatic move. The government in Doha allegedly gave the money to members of the Iranian security services and an al-Qaeda affiliate fighting in Syria in order to secure safe return of 26 members of a Qatari falconry party who had been kidnapped in southern Iraq.
The other gulf states – including Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Bahrain, and the United Arab Emirates – had cited the Qatari’s funding of regional extremism and terrorism as a chief reason for their decision to cut diplomatic ties; this hostage deal seems to legitimize some of that concern. How all of the parties react to this hostage deal will play into how the U.S. will reconcile the legitimate grievances of these Middle Eastern nations and the critical role U.S. military installations in Qatar play in the region.
BRING DAYTON TO SYRIA?
Anton Mardasov, head of the Department of Middle Eastern Conflicts at the Moscow-based Institute for Innovative Development, recently published an op-ed proposing the idea of bringing to Syria the tactics used during the 1990s to negotiate peace in Bosnia. As Russia and the United States hold back-channel talks to establish de-escalation zones in Syria, Mardasov suggests that a feasible settlement could be reached along the lines of the famous Dayton Agreement – which secured peace in Bosnia and Herzegovina in 1995.
This type of agreement would allow Syria to preserve its army while integrating the government and the opposition military formations into a new armed forces and establishing separate administrative states. Mardasov also explains this potential solution would also allow for Russia and the U.S. to tolerate each other’s military presence in Syria, since it would be an oversight function for the newly formed united military. One of the largest challenges this potential framework would present is getting each side to trust the other, yet Mardasov suggests that Russia could be willing to compromise. The biggest elephant in the room is how a potential settlement deals with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.