I am 25 years old. I've only been able to find temp jobs or part-time work since I entered the job market when I was 18.
In 2010, I obtained an associate's degree in computer information systems from a community college -- but it only landed me a 20-hour-a-week job for a small business. I spent a year unemployed in 2012 looking for a full-time career. I was unsuccessful and went back to temping.
Temp positions are very demoralizing and offer no benefits. I don't feel like a valued employee. I am simply a disposable resource. I have no way to save for retirement at these wages, no way to advance into a career, and my benefits are very limited. The thought of obtaining a position that will carry me into retirement seems like a vision only older generations believe in.
No company will offer me full-time employment by the time my assignment ends. I do data entry for a lot of Fortune 500 companies. Full-time workers are over-worked and under-paid. They are doing the jobs that should be filled by 2-3 other workers. However, the employees refuse to quit and opt into working 60+ hours a week because they're afraid of being unemployed in this job market.
I enrolled at a public university and am researching bachelor's degrees that offer relatively stable employment. This is a huge risk for me -- all the time and money invested into the degree could land me in the same job roles but with student loan debt on top of it.
