http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/28663645/

The gist of it: Now that unemployment is sky rocketing it's hitting the young crowd the hardest, and they can't get jobs.  Companies are more willing to hire the over 30 crowd with experience, 20 somethings expected the world at their fingertips and didn't expect that they'd have to work hard to get a dream job.

Highlights.

For workers under 29, the unemployment rate jumped to more than 11 percent in December, compared with under 9 percent a year ago, according to Labor Department figures. That is far worse than the overall rate of 7.2 percent, up from 4.9 percent a year ago. The rate for teenage workers, from 16-19, is far worse -- approaching 20 percent. For workers in their 30s and older, the rate is still under 7 percent, and generally declines as workers get older.

We were told it was our generation's time to shine, that we could achieve our dreams plus more,” she says. “When I was laid off I thought finding another job was going to be cake.”

Another factor keeping the jobless rate high among younger workers may be their  unwillingness to accept any job that’s offered, says Todd Steen, professor of economics at Hope College in Holland, Mich.“When you’re younger you’re willing to look a little more, maybe move around or live with parents,” he says. “If you’re 50 with a mortgage, you’ll do anything to work hard.”Indeed, James Anderson, 29, says, “I could have had a job by now if I lowered my expectations on salary and the job.”

Some career experts believe it’s that kind of mentality that hurts many Gen Yers because they aren’t willing to start small and pay their dues.

“This is the most educated generation, and they were told, "You're special,’ ” notes workplace consultant J.T. O'Donnell. “Well … they’re not special, and they end up going out into the professional world and finding this out.”

I remember just a couple weeks ago there was a topic here on VGchartz that somebody had just gotten out of college and was pissed as hell that he wasn't being given the job he wanted. But that's life. You gotta work hard doing alot of crap before you get something halfway decent alot of times. Well hopefully there will be an economic recovery in 2010, get all this nasty business behind us.

tell me so =(, i only been able to find part times like baby sitting, cleaning and call centers.

I'm glad that I won't graduate from law school until 2011. But actually I've heard that the market for lawyers really hasn't been affected at all.

A law firm is like a liquor store. When the economy is good, business is good. When the economy is bad, business is GREAT.

There are many things wrong with the Y generation and I'm sure I could rant for a long time about them, but I'll keep it short. In today's world there are no differences with yesterday's world, but only today the Y generation are unwilling to put the work in to get ahead in life. This mentality is furthered by the fact that most post-secondary students are capable of taking nothing for many semesters in a row, finally getting out with nothing more than an extended High School course are more than surprised when it means nothing in the real world.

hmm i agree with higher expectations, i'd never work as a cleaner or in a call centre.

Which means you either end up as a leech on society or starving in a gutter. Really I'd say the latter is more respectable...but only just barely. You stand on your own feet and do what you have to in order to get by. That's reality.

Did you forget your Depends today or what?  You sound like an old man.

There isn't anything about the Y generation that is particularly different.  Tell me one generation that hasn't complained about the generation before it being lazy, stupid, and worthless?  Its just a myth that is perpetuated indefinitely that "kids these days don't work as hard as they used to." 

The standards to graduate from college are higher than they used to be, and school is far more competitive than it used to be.  I tell my parents about the stuff I learned in high school and college and they were amazed how little they actually learned in high school in comparison.  Not to mention the law school I am going to teaches us way more than my father had to learn in the same amount of time because the job market has become so much more competitive.

@Vagabond , that conlusion Is incredibly weak mainly because you've made quite a few assumptions which would proove to be inacurrate if you had actualy asked me more about my life and my thoughts regarding work.

But I guess you feel self justification in what you say because you belong to an older generation.

In other new the box office has resisted the recession and my video jobs for both corporations and my own projects are accelerating. Sucks to be in an non-entertainment based industry.