Reports are popping up across the country through media outlets, ranging from the Washington Post to Fox News, about the improving economy. Such information should be music to the ears of college students, especially those approaching graduation, quaking in their boots as they ready themselves to be thrown into the job market. The federal government even reported on Jan. 7 that the national unemployment rate fell in December to 9.4 percent, the lowest it’s been since May of 2009. Recent statistical indications are pointing to a return to happiness and prosperity in the U.S.– or so it seems.
What some fail to recognize is that the national economy has technically been recovering since 2009. The stock market has stabilized, oil prices have once again risen and corporate profitability continues to rise. This recovery has been great news for the wealthy, whose salaries hinge on the profitability of their companies and/or the stock market. The greatest problem has been for middle class Americans who, in the recession, have lost thousands of jobs capable of providing a decent living for an individual and maybe his or her family. It won’t seem like anything has actually changed for the better until more middle-class quality jobs materialize.
Recent signs of hiring have been encouraging without a doubt. Jobs seem to finally be taking hold and the economy that the everyday man worries about is beginning to emerge from a very deep ditch. That being said, there is still a long way to go until every able-bodied man and woman is able to go back to work. For this reason, it would be extremely foolish to take our collective foot off the gas now in terms of job creation.
As a college student, it is reasonably safe to assume that you will become a part of this chaotic — and gradually improving — job market sometime in the next few years. As a young person, you might also be concerned with the ever-growing national debt that only increases with each additional governmental “stimulus.” This will be a debt you will one day inherit. While our national debt is an incredibly important issue that must be taken care of in a timely manner, it must not be obsessed upon at the expense of job creation. For the federal government to let up on job-creating and saving measures to prevent additional debt is a fool’s bet. Only through sustained, high employment levels will we ever be able to generate the revenue needed to pay back our national loans and release our children from debt.
What is happening now in terms of economic recovery is a welcomed, long-overdue start to a turnaround. As people who will soon look to join the ranks of the employed, college students should use their voices and their votes to show their approval of further government stimulus measures so unemployment rates can be restored to a pre-recession level. Otherwise this little recovery the nation has fought so tirelessly to gain could be lost and a second recession could put us into a hole that would simply be too difficult to climb out of.
