Editorial: To improve job rates, don’t mock hipsters

Hipsters have been finding it awkward to ride buses in British Columbia for the past six weeks.

The Canadian province just completed a $604,000 campaign to lower unemployment among young adults by encouraging students to seek professional careers. Advertisements have appeared on campuses and transit lines, displaying messages such as “Hipster is not a real job” and “Oh sure, you’ll definitely win the lottery.”

Aside from the irony of an advertising campaign that condemns hipsters by using a cool font, bright colors and a very healthy degree of sarcasm, the real question is whether these efforts will help reduce young adult unemployment.

After all, the province, like much of the United States, has had problems getting the demographic off unemployment rolls in recent years. About 14.7 percent of British Columbia residents between the ages of 15 and 24 find themselves unemployed, more than twice the rate for the general population. The United States isn’t faring much better, with unemployment among residents between the ages of 20 and 24 at a stubborn 12.4 percent.

And while the campaign has increased awareness of this issue — increasing Facebook likes and website hits to the Ministry of Jobs’ Web pages — we agree with Katie Marocchi, chairwoman of British Columbia’s division of the Canadian Federation of Students, who called the campaign the “wrong approach” in an interview with Canadian media company QMI.

More importantly, job agencies in Pittsburgh shouldn’t look at the campaign as a model for potential replication on Port Authority buses.

First, and most importantly, the ads send a confusing message. The government of British Columbia wants its youngest workers to enter the region’s booming mining and shipping industry. The jobs website highlights many potential jobs, but unquestionably focuses on occupations such as geologists and mine managers that maybe aren’t first on young people’s minds as potential careers.

This is an important message — if there are tons of jobs available in these industries, students should know. Students also need to make sure they are getting training appropriate for these jobs.

But this message doesn’t necessitate making fun of hipsters. Or proclaiming: “There’s a reason it’s called being a ski bum.” Or plastering up signs saying: “Because marrying rich may not pan out.”

What these messages do is simply confuse and degrade. And as any marketing analyst would tell you, this is not the formula for a winning advertising campaign.

It’s not surprising, then, that The Ubyssey, the University of British Columbia’s student newspaper, reports that students haven’t taken kindly to the messaging. Says one student, Ryan Crowder, “I don’t really understand the point that they’re trying to get across with the slogan. It doesn’t really make that much sense.”

Indeed, the ad just reflects an attitude that seems all too common: Youth unemployment is a result of laziness. New workers are simply too lazy and unmotivated to seek jobs.

But starting a snarky ad campaign might be the real lazy and unmotivated aspect of the British Columbian situation. According to the Pew Research Center, the recession has decreased wages for entry-level jobs more than any other group, as employers find limiting new hires’ salaries easier than reducing those of current employees. Also, while the province’s government places blame on lazy young people, Pew also shows only half of young adults believe they have the skills to advance in their careers — hinting at a picture far more nuanced than a bunch of lazy kids slacking.

So, a message to Pennsylvania CareerLink and other related agencies: If you are going to put ads on buses to get students into the workforce (Marcellus Shale drilling might eventually leave Pennsylvania in an economic situation similar to British Columbia’s), tell us how much more we may earn or how we can get the right training.

It’ll be more effective than just telling us to get rid of our skinny jeans and comb our hair.