A recent report documents a poignant gap between the expectations of young workers and the reality of the second economy. Although the stock market held a low ranking in their personal criteria, a full 53 percent believed the opposite was true of the media. Eighty-two percent of the youngest young workers are hopeful and confident about the future, yet their hope is at war with their realism. According to the Department of Labor, they have that about right. Six of the ten fastest growing occupations over the next decade are forecast to be cashiers, retail clerks, receptionists, home health aides, nurses, and teacher aides.
Young workers are markedly resentful of the slights and neglects of management.
No surprise, therefore, that 57 percent doubt that their employers treat them fairly. Only 43 percent of young workers have pension plans with employer contributions as compared to 60 percent of older workers. That ethnic-racial skew is typical of the study's findings throughout. Seventy-three percent of young workers have no college degree. As other studies have confirmed, the forgotten majority suffered a 29 percent cut in real wages between 1970 and 1995.