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Thanks for your thoughtful remark.  I completely agree.  There are many pressures on boys, young men, and fathers as well. 

posted 3 years, 8 months ago
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One thing that is often forgotten in this "jobless recovery" discussion is the dearth of recent college graduates who are not 1) not eligible for unemployment benefits and 2) not counted as unemployed.

I graduated for law school in 2008 and have yet to find stable work as an attorney.  My husband (who I met in law school) and I decided to "hang our shingle" which is an industry term for opening your own firm.  We were on track to make about $35K our first year, but decided to close shop and move back to Portland.  Now we must wait until February to sit for the bar exam, and the earliest we can expect to rehang our shingle is in March 2010.  To keep busy, we're painting houses and managing my mom's rental properties.

What I want to take note of is that so many of my friends from our class are still unemployed, working pro bono, or are working as assistants for attorneys (not practicing law at all, but as assistants) and consider themselves lucky. 

Most of us thought the road to a JD degree would be the golden ticket to a job.  We didn't feel we were entitled to $150K firm jobs, but we thought we'd at least make $60-80k/year.  In this economy, forget about it. Don't even get me started on the $100K+ debt many of us carry, plus credit card debt (which we don't have, but many do).

Recent college grads (from all programs) who are unemployed within six months of graduation should get counted in the unemployment data too.  The numbers would be trememendously higher if we were!

posted 3 years, 8 months ago
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