Barack Obama: Ruining The Future Of Today's Teens

Dig into the 9.7% unemployment rate, and you'll find some ugly sub-stories. Including this one:

The teenage unemployment rate, however, is at 25.5 percent, its highest level since the Bureau of Labor Statistics began keeping track of such data in 1948.

But in a job market where older workers are expected to continue postponing retirement a little longer, the outlook still isn’t good for young Americans desperate for the work openings that typical turnover and attrition can offer.

Nice payoff to Barack's substantial 18-21 year-old base. Maybe raising the minimum wage to $7.25 had something to do with it? Hard enough to hire in a recession, even for temporary seasonal employees, but it's one thing to hire people at $5.15 an hour, and quite another to do it at a salary that is 40% higher due to government dictate.

See what all that liberal compassion brings you? 25% unemployment among today's youth, now and maybe forever.

And how harmful is this perfect liberal storm? To today's teenagers, it's a poison pill that could last a lifetime:

Minimum wage jobs are entry level positions. They are the first rung on young workers career ladder, where they learn essential career skills such as self-discipline, accepting direction from a boss, and interacting productively with customers and co-workers. Minimum wage positions provide on-the-job training in career skills. As minimum wage workers gain these skills they become more productive and earn raises – two-thirds of minimum wage workers earn a raise within a year.

Cutting off the bottom rung of this career ladder means that teenage workers delay acquiring these skills. This hurts their earnings and employment prospects for up to a decade later. If Congress hopes to change teenage workers employment prospects it should stop pricing them out of their jobs.

Remember this, the next time Congress tells you $7.25 is no longer an acceptable minimum wage. And may God have mercy on the younger generation of Americans, who, along with the elderly (should Obamacare pass) will suffer the most for the sins of this dangerously liberal administration.