Kira Rambles

In October, I called my friend Marc, a Barcelona native and my best friend when I lived in Spain for two years studying and working in outdoor education. When I asked him about his work, he told me, “Me he quedado sin trabajo.” I have found myself without a job. 

I laughed at the casual way he talked about being unemployed and how the Spanish language let him make it passive. For him, it wasn’t a big deal. That’s a cultural response to decades of economic crisis, including 40 years of a fascist dictatorship in the 20th century. As of 2023, Spain’s GDP per capita was roughly $50,000 less than the United States’ (World Bank Group). They have a 12.14% unemployment rate (as opposed to 4.1 in the US), and they are largely a hospitality-based economy (Statistica). Spaniards themselves joke they’re a “country of waiters,” but the joke and the unemployment, which spikes to over 25% for people aged 20-24, both speak to a sober reality. Spain is not an easy place to live and work, which is why Spain experiences a massive brain drain of young educated professionals to other countries in Europe. All of which is to say, for people—especially young people—in Spain, finding oneself without work is normal. 

Thankfully, that’s not the case in the United States. Yet. While unemployment is higher for youth (4.5% for recent college grads and 9.5% for people 16-19), employment is still universal enough that our culture makes it part of our identity. What do we ask new people we meet? What do you do? What do we ask kids? What do you want to be when you grow up? 

As a high schooler in Denver, I wanted to be a National Parks ranger, so I studied Spanish and Recreation and Outdoor Education at Western Colorado University. When I graduated last May, I took a seasonal job as an interpreter at a museum in New York, and when that contract ended in the fall, I worked winter maintenance on a tall ship on the Hudson, all while completing an unpaid Spanish translating internship for a nonprofit in Colorado and an online State Department-sponsored Critical Language scholarship for Russian to earn federal non-compete status for government jobs. 

In addition to critical language students, returned Peace Corps volunteers and select AmeriCorps alumni get non-compete, and it guarantees your resume will make it through the initial slush pile onto the desk of someone with hiring power for any usajobs.gov position you have the qualifications for. It’s not a guarantee, but since most federal applications are initially screened by people outside of the agencies actually hiring, it does increase your chances of someone in your industry recognizing your experience. Lots of people take Peace Corps or AmeriCorps positions with the hope of working for the National Parks Service. I, too, had hoped my non-compete could help me get a seasonal job with the NPS, the BLM, or the Forest Service this summer that could morph into a career in the outdoors. That’s not going to happen now. 

This week, the Forest Service fired 3,400 employees. The National Parks cut 1,000 positions. For people in the outdoor industry, federal jobs with agencies like the NPS or the FS have long been one of the few long-term, benefited options. Not anymore. And these cuts are not unique to the outdoor industry or even the American West, although Western states particularly will feel the effects of downsizing these agencies because of the higher concentration of public land here. No, government jobs across the country are dissolving. Federal work has long been seen as a way to guarantee stability, benefits, and a living wage, but with these massive cuts, we’re going to have to rethink how we think about working. They will increase unemployment while driving steeper competition for jobs in the private sector. That competition will make it harder for young professionals to enter their fields, driving many of them to stay in jobs like waiting tables just to have income. That will spike youth unemployment. Sound familiar? It sounds like Spain. Federal jobs gave Americans a chance at economic stability we are going to miss. We may all be talking about work like Marc soon.