I hate to read “those kids today” rants – this is more of a “those poor kids today” version of that.

I think having a job when one is young is important, really important. And I don’t mean having a fancy internship, I mean a job where you make money for college, or for whatever thing you think you HAVE to have that your parents are unwilling or unable to fund.
It’s important not only to earn your own scratch, but to be bored out of your mind, to have to contemplate “OMG is this ALL there is???” and to think “here are the 10,000 other things I’d rather put my super powers to use in favor of.” My summer job at the pool definitely inspired endless fantasies of what my grown-up life would be like. Being unstimulated by my surroundings and/or terrified of being stuck where I was at that point in time was a HUGE motivator to me.

It makes me sad to think that fewer kids get the chance to go through that intellectual exercise at a relatively lower risk point in their lives. I think it’s a crucial component of being able to say “you know what, I’d rather do XXX, maybe make less money but do things I believe are good, with people I want to work with” later in life.

Fewer than 30% of teens ages 16 to 19 are likely to find paying jobs this summer, down from 52% in 2000 and about the same as the summer 2010 rate of 29.6%, the lowest since the government began keeping records in the 1940s, says Andrew Sum, director of the Center for Labor Market Studies at Northeastern University, Boston. Beyond general job-market weakness, tighter legal restrictions on youth labor and adult competition for jobs are crowding teens out.

With summer approaching, an increasing number of high-schoolers around the country are preparing to launch their own start-ups—and not just lemonade stands. With lawn-mowing businesses, hand-painting of tennis shoes or Bosnian-language computer repairs, teens are bucking long odds in the dismal job market and earning their own mall money or cash for college.

How many of kids with their own little businesses will be inspired to dream up bigger businesses?

About 3.7% of high-school seniors are interested in becoming business owners or entrepreneurs, based on a survey of 1.9 million students by the National Research Center for College & University Admissions, Lee’s Summit, Mo. Interest among younger high-school students is higher, at 4.1% to 4.4%.

More lefty liberals writing about their friends from the New York Times.

Fascinating – read it here.

Femivorism is grounded in the very principles of self-sufficiency, autonomy and personal fulfillment that drove women into the work force in the first place. Given how conscious (not to say obsessive) everyone has become about the source of their food — who these days can’t wax poetic about compost? — it also confers instant legitimacy. Rather than embodying the limits of one movement, femivores expand those of another: feeding their families clean, flavorful food; reducing their carbon footprints; producing sustainably instead of consuming rampantly. What could be more vital, more gratifying, more morally defensible?

What will our families’ economic structure look like in 5 years, 20 years, when I’m old and gray? All Americans (citizens of most of the world?) think about these things more frequently than we ever thought possible, I’m sure.

As planners/strategists/what-are-we-calling-ourselves-these-days, it’s our job to do it a bit more thoughtfully, perhaps with a bit of detachment even.

Before the Great Recession whirled into our lives, girls were already attending and graduating from university at higher rates. In something like 30% of dual income households, the ladies were already bringing home the larger paycheck.

With this in mind, one of the more interesting threads to ponder (to my potted mind) is what, if any, changes will occur within male-female relations as a result of mens diminished earning capacity. Will we all finally GET BEYOND money as equaling power in a relationship? Will “the gold-digger” varietal of our species veer towards extinction? (fingers crossed, small prayer, nod and done!)

A bit of fodder for the mental hamster wheel, my pretties:

Read this phenomenal Atlantic piece on how today’s economic situation will change the future of manhood.

Last Friday, the Labor Department released payroll information and yep, it’s official, more women are working in the US than men. This blog post in the NYT digs into the data.

And then head over to a University of Chicago professor’s article that pulls apart some of the data surrounding government entitlement payments by generation. It’s sure to make the senior set uncomfortable. There aren’t any comments up as of my posting here, but I imagine there will be in short order.

Earlier this week, the Wall Street Journal looked into the changing landscape of spousal-support expectations in the US. The law and implementation of it varies widely from state to state, but there are some good overall numbers that I thought I’d share with you. In the comments section of the original article, people are sharing their divorce horror stories and shocker, there are a bunch of depressing ones, to say the least. Maybe you can scan through and be heartened that your life is not so?

Happy thoughts, people, happy thoughts!

Many states put formal alimony laws into place in the 1960s and 1970s, amid rising divorce rates and concerns that women earned less than men. States such as California and Massachusetts passed laws that included provisions for indefinite alimony. More-conservative Texas, by comparison, generally limited payments to three years.

Many divorce agreements provide for alimony or spouse-support payments, which is separate from child-support payments. Americans gave $9.4 billion to former spouses in 2007, up from $5.6 billion a decade earlier, according to the Internal Revenue Service. Men accounted for 97% of alimony-payers last year, according to the U.S. Census Bureau, although the share of women supporting ex-husbands is on the rise.

Critics argue that in the decades since alimony guidelines were set, the U.S. has changed much: Women made up 46.7% of the work force last year, up from 41.2% in 1978, according to the Department of Labor. Others counter that America hasn’t changed enough: Women in the 45-to-54-year-old age group earn 75% as much as men the same age.

With several of my Facebook friends’ statuses (stati?) announcing their current stage of illness, I thought I’d look at some swine flu numbers, specifically on preparedness plans. And magically, the Wall Street Journal obliged me today!

How many “swine flu” costumes did you see this Halloween?

H1N1 flu, has infected millions of people and killed at least 5,700 world-wide.

Worried they could face throngs of ill and absent employees, companies are devising plans to keep their offices and factories running. So far, outbreaks appear to be more common in schools than workplaces.

81% of attendees polled at a September conference by the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota said their greatest concern about H1N1 flu was employee absenteeism.

Only a third of 1,057 businesses across the U.S. surveyed by the Harvard School of Public Health in July and August said they could avoid operational problems over a two-week period if half of their work force was out because of H1N1.

To pre-empt high absenteeism, many companies are trying to get workers vaccinated, particularly those who travel internationally, but obtaining H1N1 vaccine is difficult because governments are controlling supplies and steering them to those considered at highest risk.

Another challenge: persuading sick employees to stay home. Many hourly workers have limited sick time, after which they aren’t paid, says Nina Stillman, a partner with Morgan, Lewis & Bockius LLP who has advised clients regarding H1N1. Higher-ups consider themselves essential, she adds.

Texas Instruments Inc. has relaxed its sick-leave policy to encourage employees with flu-like symptoms to stay home, including hourly employees who aren’t paid if they don’t work. This winter, TI is letting workers take as many sick days as they need for flu by borrowing against future allowances, says Lisa Luna, manager of occupational health.

Some companies are stocking antiviral drugs to treat flu-ridden employees.

Abbott Laboratories, a health-care company with 72,000 employees, in September began distributing H1N1 travel kits to employees traveling on business as well as to salespeople, who often visit hospitals or doctors where H1N1 patients may be treated. The kits include tissues, antibacterial soap, disposable thermometers, respirators and other items.

To keep people from getting sick on the job, Convergys Corp. has asked agents at its 82 call centers globally to wipe down their desks, headsets and phones with sanitizing wipes at the end of their shifts, says Carol Fox, senior director for risk management and business-continuity planning. The Cincinnati company says it initially thought that absenteeism could be as high as 20%, but so far “we aren’t seeing that at all,” Ms. Fox says.

Addendum:

Clorox’s earnings rose 23% on improved profit margins and increased sales of disinfecting products caused in part by concerns over the H1N1 flu virus.

Even before the recession struck last year, there was ample evidence of an increase in “long-distance” coupling due to work demands – and also crucially, I think, due to a belief or trust that technology can lessen the feelings of separate-ness.

A Time Magazine article from late 2007 noted “Commuter marriages, in which couples live apart for long stretches, are multiplying. Their number jumped 30%, to 3.6 million, from 2000 to 2005, according to an analysis of census figures by Greg Guldner of the Center for the Study of Long-Distance Relationships, a Web-based clearinghouse for research in this nascent field. While military deployments, migratory jobs and economic need have long forced couples around the world to live apart, in America today, it is more often the woman’s career that drives the separation. Technologies like instant messaging and Skype make the parting easier by facilitating virtual pillow talk that keeps couples in touch.”

Here’s some recent data on how couples living separately continues to increase, though perhaps more out of financial necessity now than a couple with two red-hot careers to nurture.

The recession is complicating job hunts—and the lives—of two-career couples, particularly when one lands an offer out of town. The search for employment is forcing more couples into long-distance relationships.

A recent survey of 1,450 successful job seekers conducted by outplacement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas found that 18.2% relocated for positions in the second quarter, up from 11.4% a year earlier.

Faced with a choice between the financial hardship of unemployment or a relocating for a job, more couples are going for a third option and choosing long-term separations. The issue is more common during this recession than in past downturns because of the prevalence of two-career couples. In 2008, 51.4% of married households had both spouses working, according to the U.S. Department of Labor.

Indeed, the depressed housing market makes matters even more difficult for couples because many families can’t sell their homes, even after one spouse moves elsewhere for work. “One leaves for income and the other stays because they can’t sell their home,” says Claudia Goldin, a professor of economics at Harvard University.

While tooling around, looking for numbers on another subject entirely, I came across this great article, bursting with stats, on the impact a bad economy has on a person’s earning potential. The full link includes many anecdotes and is worth checking out if you are so inclined.

Economic research shows that the consequences of graduating in a downturn are long-lasting. They include lower earnings, a slower climb up the occupational ladder and a widening gap between the least- and most-successful grads.

In short, luck matters. The damage can linger up to 15 years, says Lisa Kahn, a Yale School of Management economist. She used the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth, a government data base, to track wages of white men who graduated before, during and after the deep 1980s recession.

Ms. Kahn found that for each percentage-point increase in the unemployment rate, those with the misfortune to graduate during the recession earned 7% to 8% less in their first year out than comparable workers who graduated in better times. The effect persisted over many years, with recession-era grads earning 4% to 5% less by their 12th year out of college, and 2% less by their 18th year out.

The impact on wages could be just as severe this time around, says Ms. Kahn. That’s because of the depth of this recession and the possibility that the unemployment rate may approach the 10.8% level not seen since the early 1980s. The rate hit 8.9% in April, the Labor Department reported Friday.

One reason behind declining wage potential, economists say: The caliber of jobs available in a recession, and their accompanying wages, tend to suffer. High-end firms hire fewer people and drive down salaries because jobs are in such demand.

That means many graduates end up with lower-wage, lower-skill jobs at less-prestigious firms or in firms outside their field of interest. Once the economy picks up and they try for better jobs, these workers have to learn skills they should have been developing immediately out of college. In the meantime, colleagues who graduated in a better economy have already developed these skills and progressed much further.

This year, employers say they’ll hire 22% fewer college graduates than last year, according to the National Association of Colleges and Employers, an organization of career counselors. At the same time, colleges are expected to see the highest number of graduates in a decade. The average starting salary for graduates who do get jobs, meanwhile, dropped to $48,515 this spring, down 2.2% from the same time last year, according to NACE.

Marco von Wachter, a Columbia University economist, with a couple of colleagues, has looked at wage data covering 70% of all Canadians who graduated from college between 1976 and 1995, a span encompassing two recessions. His work indicates that graduates who get jobs in their fields — even low-paying jobs — are able to learn the right skills, and thus have an edge when the economy rebounds.

Mr. von Wachter also found that what recession-era graduates studied, and where they went to school, made a big difference in how quickly they caught up to workers who graduated in boom times. People who majored in fields that lead to high-paying jobs, such as chemistry, biology, physics and engineering, tended to catch up to other graduates more quickly, primarily by switching jobs during the economic recovery and landing at better firms. In contrast, says Mr. von Wachter, the wages of humanities majors at less prestigious schools were less likely to catch up to the wages of their peers who graduated in healthier times.

From the Wall Street Journal, some useful numbers on the workforce of today and examples of how companies are trying to allay younger workers fears of little advancement opportunities.

In a recent survey of more than 2,200 U.S. workers by consulting firm Watson Wyatt Worldwide, 44% of respondents age 50 or older said they plan to postpone retirement; half of those say they plan to work at least three years longer than previously expected.

As of June, 23% of Americans working or looking for work were 55 to 64 years old and 4% were 65 and older, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. That means more than a quarter of the current labor force will be eligible to retire in the next 10 years. Workers can qualify for reduced Social Security retirement benefits as early as age 62 and for Medicare at age 65.

Some employers are taking steps to make themselves more attractive to younger workers, who may fear a shortage of promotion opportunities.

International Business Machines Corp. in December created an online tool to boost its internal mentorship program, in which older, more experienced employees share knowledge with younger workers, says Mary Ann Bopp, manager of IBM’s mentoring programs. In turn, senior employees are seeking “reverse mentors” to learn about, for example, online social networking.

Since December, more than 3,500 employees have signed up to be mentors and more than 2,600 co-workers have sought them out. “There was huge demand,” Ms. Bopp says.