^ This! I have heard these sorts of excuses quoted from the parents of young graduates who are still unemployed or underemployed. Not for nurses necessarily, but I’d add these popular ones to the list:
“I am not the kind a person who can sit at a desk all day.”
“I don’t want a long commute.”
This shows an aversion to any kind of discomfort, which is not exactly a lack of resilience but a lack of tolerance for any activity that may require resilience.
However, I’m going to suggest that these sorts of stories are simply tapping into confirmation bias.
Actual proper studies I’ve seen—you know, with non-convenience sampling strategies and such—don’t suggest a lack of resilience or an aversion to discomfort, including in what sort of employment people are willing to take. Now, an aversion to poor working conditions and unrealistically low pay, well, if that counts as an aversion to discomfort to you, then we’re simply dealing with a difference in definitions, I suppose.
Nvm
@Justonedad “@Much2learn 1) As a whole, both SAT and ACT scores are on the decline. Students are scoring lower despite tests being reformulated to be easier.
2) The middle class is shrinking because students have less resilience and are unwilling or unable to do what their parents did to get there.”
“We used to be glad for the opportunity to go to college at all. Now, you can see how critical it is that you go to a prestigious one.”
Average scores are declining, that is true. However, the percentage of high school students taking these tests has risen significantly. The number of students with very high scores is up. The importance of high scores in admissions is up because they get some many of them now. That fuels the cycle. Additionally, students applying to major colleges used to be largely competing in their state. Now, they are increasingly competing in their region, and nationally and internationally. Top students have become increasingly willing to travel to good schools an that further raises the bar.
The idea that the middle class is shrinking because of low resilience is purely a conjecture on your part, and based solely on anecdotes. It may be true or false, but you have shown no evidence that it is true.
However, it appears to me that we have been observing very different populations. In contrast to your experience, I have had the privilege of observing what top students today are expected to do and achieve, and expect of themselves. In my experience, these kids in the tail of the distribution go well beyond the majority of their peers from the past.
The top group is very different ballgame. Self-motivated students who are getting 5s on AP exams in middle school. A top student with a 27 ACT score in 8th grade who was told that she has a shot at a good college but she needs to put in some effort and do a lot better. I agree that it isn’t an overly impressive score, but it is definitely respectable for middle school. That is not a slacker kid. That level of expectation on a kid is beyond what happened in the past.
I do understand that your experience with a few people has led you to a conclusion, but I think that it is a vast overgeneralization.
Also, with regard to unemployment, you do not understand how it is calculated very well. There are huge numbers of people who are not included in this because they are not included as part of the workforce, even if they are actively applying for jobs. No one believes that number. Ask any economist. It is less accurate than Chinese GDP.
What if more humane practices, like better mental health care (and removal of stigma) and financial aid, etc., are allowing less resilient people to get more education and better jobs than they did in the past? So maybe it’s not that people, on average, are less resilient, but that our society is just a little nicer to those who do need more help. That would be great, in my opinion.
Various measures of unemployment are listed here:
http://www.bls.gov/news.release/empsit.t15.htm
U-3 is the most commonly reported unemployment rate.
U-4 adds “discouraged workers”.
U-5 adds those “marginally attached to the labor force”.
U-6 adds part time workers who would rather have full time work.
Odd that there is no “U-5.5”, meaning U-5 plus part time workers pro-rated by the difference between their part time and full time that they want (i.e. a half time worker who wants full time work counts as half of an unemployed person in “U-5.5”).
Other relevant definitions are here:
http://www.bls.gov/dolfaq/bls_ques23.htm