Companies have offered to fly him to their headquarters for interviews. And the two offers he has gotten from banks would allow him to earn hefty commissions, even though the base salaries are lower than he'd hoped. That's because despite the layoff announcements, the economy is still creating jobs. The nation's unemployment rate held steady in February at 4.2 percent, still close to its 30-year low. Even if it reaches 4.5 percent by the end of the year, as some economists predict, it will fall far short of the 7.8 percent reached in 1992, as the country was coming out of the last recession.
Young workers have demographics on their side.
Employers already compete for a relatively small pool of workers aged 25 to 34. The baby boomers have had to compete with each other for everything. They also will move up the career ladder quickly as employers run out of their older brothers and sisters to tap for mid-level managerial positions. Hayya Lee, an American University senior majoring in broadcast journalism and international relations, agrees. Lee's older brother, who graduated from college last year, found work immediately as a software engineer.