By, Jake Foote
Finding a job is often the most terrifying obstacle facing millennials as they leave school and try to enter the work force full-time.
Their apprehension is not unwarranted.
For the past three months, the United States has maintained an overall unemployment rate of 4.9 percent, which is considered by many economists to fall within the range of what could be an American economy operating at full employment.
Despite the consistent job creation reported by the United States Department of Labor, the youth unemployment rate still sits at 10.2 percent . Tangible reasons for this discrepancy are difficult to find, but economist and professor at the University of Maryland Peter Morici points towards how the value of education has changed over the years.
"A lot of millennials do not have adequate education for the kinds of job opportunities that are out there," said Morici. "If you study English at a midland university, there are not as many job opportunities. It's Starbucks or the unemployment line."
Since current job creation numbers appear to have little to no bearing on opportunities for millennials, Morici suggests looking at other statistics such as the number of millennials who work part-time, but are searching for full-time work.
"It's harder to measure the overall number of millennials that are unemployed, because you do not go to college to drive a cab and we have a lot of that," said Morici.
According to Morici, this year's election will not have much of an impact on the job opportunities available to millennials unless the incoming administration were able to foster large amounts of economic growth.
Large amounts of economic growth would likely be the best indicator of improved opportunities for young people as there would be more jobs available in general and companies would become more lenient with whom they hire.
This type of growth would be the goal of a Donald Trump presidency, as economic populism has been one of the main concepts he has marketed to supporters.
A Hillary Clinton presidency could mean little change from an economic standpoint as Morici characterized the possibility as "a third term of Barack Obama."
The overall unemployment rate will likely fall gradually as we enter the holiday season where there is normally an uptick in job creation.