Below is an excerpt from the story. The entire piece can be read and listened to on the NPR website.
“Educated and Jobless: What’s Next for Millenials?”
All Things Considered (NPR)
November 12, 2011
The Occupy Wall Street protests in several cities around the country have turned a spotlight on the growing frustration among the millennial generation, a group that has suffered crushing student loan debt and high rates of unemployment.
Lindey Loftin is part of that generation, but the 27-year-old is not unemployed. In fact, she says she loves her job, is well paid and has no college loan debt. Her employer actually paid for a portion of her education.
As an actuarial analyst, Loftin works on data for pensions, and her story raises a lot of questions about the strategy of young, educated job-seekers. Very few students today choose a career the way Loftin did: with cold, calculated, cost-benefit analysis.
Loftin, who plays the cello, told weekends on All Things Considered guest host Jacki Lyden she originally considered going into music education or becoming a performance major.
“But I also knew that I was good in the math field, and I looked into the actuarial profession and saw that, well, that’s a lot better of a chance,” she says. “When I was researching the career as a student, it always ranked high up there: low stress, great pay and good rate of employment.”
According to research from Georgetown University, the actuary field ranks 150th in popularity among 173 fields studied. But, it also ranks No. 1 in employability.
Congratulations, Lindey, on a job well done representing the future of the actuarial profession!