The Career Climb

Feb 3, 2012 by Emma Dutton    Comments Off    Posted under: gen.y/beta

Emma Dutton/Chicago Loopster

Entering the job market in these economic times is no easy task. Even the highly-educated young Americans are struggling. How can prospective hard workers stand out from the crowd? What if that still doesn’t lead to jobs? Chicago Loopster is offering a leg-up with advice, potential solutions and a look at the current state of the job market.

I Message

Feb 3, 2012 by Arjuna Soriano    Comments Off    Posted under: gen.y/beta

Arjuna Soriano/Chicago Loopster

Owning a home. Still the American dream?

Feb 2, 2012 by Mike DiFerdinando    Comments Off    Posted under: gen.y/beta

Housing prices and interest rates are at historic lows, but people still aren’t buying homes. This is especially true of young people.

Keene and Cheshire County (NH) Historical Photos/Flickr

Keene and Cheshire County (NH) Historical Photos/Flickr

Is the stagnant housing market simply a symptom of the struggling economy, or is it possible that it is the result of a shift in cultural values among a younger generation who no longer view home ownership as part of the American dream?

Ali Hashmi/Chicago Loopster

The Standard & Poor’s Case-Shiller seasonally adjusted housing index for 20 cities dropped again in November 2011, the last month for which data is available, falling to the lowest levels since 2003.

The index fell 1.3 percent from October to November and 3.7 percent from November 2010. According to the index, U.S. home prices are back to their mid-2003 levels, down 32.9 percent from their peak, in July 2006.

“I think some of these young people, after witnessing the strategic defaults and foreclosures of recent years are not looking at residential real estate as a place where they can get a return on equity,” said Denise Daniele Akason, Associate Director of the Real Estate program at Northwestern’s Kellogg School of Management. “They may be choosing to invest elsewhere. They also may be choosing to rent longer and will eventually buy when markets recover.”

But can something be said for the changing attitudes and social norms of the Millennial generation?

According to data from a 2010 Pew Research Center study, only 20 percent of Millennials (those born during the 1980s and early 1990s) say owning their own home is one of the most important things to them. The same research shows that roughly a quarter of Millennials (23 percent) say they are currently married, compared with 59 percent of Gen Xers (those born between the early 1960s and early 1980s) and 64 percent of Boomers ( those born between the late 1940s and early 1960s). In general, the research finds that young people are less likely to be married now than was the case 20 years ago.

Although only about a third of Millennials (34 percent) have children, they are just as likely as their
older counterparts to place high value on good parenting. About half (52 percent) said being a good parent is one of the most important things to them. This compares with 50 percent of those ages 30 and older, according to Pew.

Could the fact that fewer young people are marrying and having children play a role in the hurting housing market?

“Each semester, early on, after we talk about the housing crisis and the financial crisis, I ask my students to do a short paper on their views about buying a home. These are people in their early twenties, and over ninety percent of them still want to buy a home,” said Thomas Bothen, Associate Director at the University of Chicago Illinois Center for Urban Real Estate. “What’s preventing them from doing that is some uncertainty about the economy, the security of their jobs or getting a job.”

According to Pew, households headed by adults younger than 35 had less housing wealth in 2009 than did households headed by younger adults in 1984. These household heads are slightly less likely to be homeowners (38 percent in 2009 versus 40 percent in 1984), and home equity plays a smaller role in their overall wealth (31% in 2009 versus 46% in 1984).

“I think mansions are an endangered species,” Bothen said. “I think the preference now is for smaller homes. Environmental and energy sustainability is a factor for the younger homebuyer. I don’t think there is a cultural shift though. The students that I teach still want to own a home at some point. There are economic barriers to overcome, though.”

Politics from Gen. X to Gen. Y

Feb 2, 2012 by Alma Bahman    Comments Off    Posted under: gen.y/beta

How does Generation Y – a.k.a. the “Millenials” – feel about politics?

A study by the Pew Research Center, The Millenials: Confident. Connected. Open to Change, showed that our generation, compared to Generation X-ers, voted the least, tended to support Barack Obama (although not so much anymore) and didn’t see eye-to-eye with our elders’ views on issues like national security or social agendas.

In general, we’re liberal, hands-off and pretty easy-going about politics while our parents tended to be more involved and conservative. I set out to see if this disparity still existed.

Listen to the audio clips to hear thoughts from both generations. I asked members of each generation what is the most important political issue to them right now, why and if they had any solutions to those problems.

#Sh*tGenYSays

Feb 2, 2012 by Lauren Gold    Comments Off    Posted under: gen.y/beta

Lauren Gold/Chicago Loopster

Every generation has its trademarks, but our generation is particularly inventive. With new gadgets and technologies cropping up left and right, it’s hard not to get caught up in our own vocabulary words and ways of life. Generation Y, or rather all of us twenty-somethings, are taking over the scene. So true, right?

We are full of abbrevs and timesavers these days, DMing potential contacts on Twitter and BBMing emoticons to our BFFs (wait, the Blackberry is so not cool anymore). Out of the country? Skype me. Don’t know the answer? Google it. We vent about our co-workers via g-chat and flirt simultaneously through texting more often than phone calls. Social media is the only media, as far as we’re concerned.

Grindr Photos/Flickr

We are the meme generation, laughing over cat videos, David After Dentist and Sh*t Girls Say. We blog on Tumblr, photograph on Instagram and shop online for the best deals. We express ourselves through Facebook statuses and trending topics, and we communicate with our favorite celebs by tweeting at them instead of sending in fan mail. Self-expression exists IRL (in real life) and on our profiles…OMG, tag me in that mupload (mobile upload).

We are one of the most educated and ambitious generations yet, according to Examiner.com. We have goals and dream jobs, and we are young enough to believe we can make them happen. We’re open to new ideas, but if you haven’t heard about the latest band on the scene, forget it. Seriously.

We have the latest apps, too. Oh, what’s the name of that new Coldplay song? Let me Shazam it. There’s nothing our smart phones can’t do. Our social circles consist of our combined contacts between LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook and maybe even Google+, too. If we’re too far to meet for drinks, we can just FaceTime later. The guys have their bromances, and the girls have their movie nights, livestreamed off of Hulu or Netflix, of course. We are technology and social media mavens, except when the fail whale ruins our Twitter sesh. Ugh, FML.

Sure, we love to go out and meet new people, but it’s just as common to date online, too. We consult Yelp and Urbanspoon to find our favorite bars and restaurants (did you check in on Foursquare?). We find decorating inspiration for our studio apartments on Pinterest and take recipes from baking blogs, not our grandma’s old recipe book.

We manage to check the score, respond to our e-mails and show up to work on time, all while staying up to date on current events and staying in shape at group fitness classes at the gym.

We are gen.y/beta FTW. Wait, BRB for a sec…