Five tips for young job-seekers during a recession

BusinessWeek's latest cover story

reports that the current financial crisis is creating a lost generation of young people. That sounds quite dramatic, but is it true? A generation tossed on the scrap heap of history? Surely you exaggerate, BusinessWeek! Unfortunately, its evidence is certainly sobering. However, my work with people on the verge of graduating from college suggests that gloom and doom won't help.

BusinessWeek argues that in the last two years, the employment gap between those aged 22 to 27 and those 28 to 50 has almost doubled. It found that in 2007, 84.4 percent of young graduates had jobs -- just slightly below the older group's 86.8 percent. But in 2009, the gap has grown to be about twice as big.

Research also suggests that getting your first job in a recession can be costly. BusinessWeek cites evidence showing that as the unemployment rate rises by 1 percentage point, those who graduated during the recession earned 6 percent to 7 percent less in their first year of work than people who got their jobs when times were better.