This is real money. You are the most important part of the show. Tell me what is on your line ali velshi or at facebook. I pay good attention to these. Americas job market is back. Back to where it started. Before the Great Recession sort of. Let me explain. In may the u. S. Economy created a solid 217,000 net new jobs. That means you take all the jobs that were created. Subtracting all the ones that were lost. And employers added at least 200,000 jobs every month since february. This is one of the best fourmonth stretches of job creation in the United States since the late 1990s. And mays job gain. 138. 5million americans are working on jobs that are not on farms. This is finally above the level that it stood at in january of january 2008. Its taken us more than four years to recover all of those jobs. Making this the longest employment recovery on record or at least since the department of labor started tracking the data in 1939. That part is not good. Here is another reason were not breaking out the champagne to celebrate this milestone. The u. S. Population has kept growing during the past six years. And just to provide jobs for people entering the workforce for the first time the labor market has had to create tens of thousands of jobs during the mop during the recession we lost jobs. The population still kept growing. We lost jobs. The economists estimate that we are still at this point after losing and gaining were still 6. 9 million jobs short of where we need to be. Now i have talked plenty on this show about why the Unemployment Rate doesnt deserve nearly the attention that it gets because it fails to reflect people who have given up looking for work possibly for a good reason. But for the record the Unemployment Rate, and this is what youll see in the newspapers, remained at 6. 3 in may. More significant, the number i like better is the Labor Force Participation rate, this is the percentage of working age people who have jobs or are looking for work. The percentage of people who are working almost everyone agree this is reflects the fact that people have given up find rag job that theyre willing to take. One age group that is still having a hard go of it are young people between the ages of 20 and 24. Unemployment rose to 11. 1 . Thats up half a percentage point in april. To help find jobs or get better ones many recent College Grads are turning to job clubs. Many are under employed. We take to you one such job club here in new york city. Reporter midtown, new york city, 6 00 p. M. Its happy hour but instead of heading to the pub, one group of 20somethings is going to the public library. She has a bachelors degree in biology and masters i degree but getting by as a clerk. I feel like i wasted my time in school. Shes you one of the many who joined the job club for emotional support and job search advice. This meeting is organized by the library. Leveraging personal contacts. It doesnt matter what you do or what level you are. Reporter each meeting has an unique focus. Todays topic, network to go gain access to the hidden john market. All of those unpublished positions that are filled before they go out to the public. Reporter members are encouraged to share contacts because what may not work for one person could be anothers golden ticket. There are about 10,000 of these job clubs in america with more forming every week. Since 2007 these job clubs have proliferated. They are in churches and mosques. Neighbors helping neighbors, he started many jobs clubs. He said too many young people rely too heavily on the internet and not real world networking. Youre going to place with somebody that you know. Youre not going to take somebody off the streets for that job. 2,000 people are now working because of the support they received at his meeting. He encouraging more people to join clubs. Its so good. Its probably th the best kept secret. Career experts say finding a job means not being ashamed to tell people you need work. Itits a blow to youre go, constantly telling people how great you are, and then getting rejection. It doesnt make you feel as great as youre supposed to be. She comes to the happy hour and reminds herself shes not alone. Hopefully put good energy into the world and get something back. Several dozen former members are now working. Al jazeera, new york. Now not having a job in the early stages of your career can deliver a good blow to your future earnings once you do land a job. Discussing why the hardships facing young adults Rory Osullivan with an organization that focuses on Economic Issues that effect youn adults 18 to 34. We have associations like the aarp who look after the interests of older people. As were seeing Unemployment Rates its a real concern. All the best evidence out there shows that when youre early on a in your career it can lead to wages down the road. Were working to reduce that trend to turn it in the other direction and solve these problems. Ultimately one of the reasons the Younger Generation suffers from higher unemployment is because we went through a recession. And a lot of people under normal circumstances would have retired and moved on are holding on to the jobs that allow people to move up or maybe in even some cases entry level jobs. There are older people doing jobs that younger people and students would get into. There are fewer opportunities for our generation now. Were often the first fired and then the last hired in the recession. Thats why you still see young people with job problems despite the numbers today. The bottom line, the one secret of success in america is having an education. Absolutely. I mean, there is no question that the trends over the last several decades that you need some kind of credential of twoyear degree, fouryear degree, something beyond a High School Diploma to be successful. What are some options, what are some things that young people who may be struggling, what are the options to the fouryear degree do we have . It doesnt have to be a bachelors degree. Computer systems or Information Science that can turn out to pay 60,000 to 70,000 in the long run. That pays more than some bachelors degrees. There are good options you have to look into in these growing fields. One of the things we hear about is the growing cost of education, the student debt burden. While that is a real concern it becomes less real if you have one of these jobs where you can earn 70,000 or more. I always worry interest isnt enough focus on the return of investment in education. Reporter absolutely. When we see a crisis of 1. 2 trillion in student debt we need to be making sure that young people have the information they need so they can get a degree that doesnt cost as much and they can get that return. I think its safe to say if youre going to incur debt, education is the best place to incur it so you can pay it off. Absolutely. Thank you for joining us and bringing the attention of the plight of young people in america. Its a troubling trend. Americans dipping into thinks 401k accounts as if it were a piggy bank. This is a big mistake. Im going to tell what you you need to know before you pull the trigger on an early withdraw. The new law that could help colorados Legal Marijuana business in a big way. Those stories when real money continues. Keep it right here. Every saturday join us for exclusive, revealing, and surprising talks with the most interesting people of our time. 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Having 30 seconds of advanced warning is like a lifetime. Techknow, every saturday go where science meets humanity. This is some of the best driving ive ever done, even thought i cant see. Techknow. Were here in the vortex. Tomorrow night, 7 30 eastern. Only on al jazeera america. New jersey need of crash are increasingly raiding their 401 retirement accounts prematurely. In 2011 workers yanked 57 billion from their nest eggs just below the record set in 2010. Now the economy has recovered a little bit, but its understanding that the collapse of the Housing Market made getting home equity loans a nonstarter back then. But using your 401k as a piggy bank is usually not a good idea. The penalties you pay are only part of the problem. Like a piggy bank ha 401k accounts could be rainy day money. But a 10 penalty fee on top of any tax. That requirement savings accounts that is posed to be there for 30 or 40 years becomes a piggy bank for folks. Nobody wants to do that, but people dont have other options. That 57 billion americans withdrew from their 401ks i in 2011 earned the irs 5. 7 billion in penalties. And all that money being withdrawn from retirement accounts is making americans less prepared for retirement. According to a recent gallop survey, 48 of americans say their 401k plans will be a major source of their Retirement Income. But according to one example prematurely withdrawing 16,000 in a 401k at age 30 and not paying it back could cost 471 per month in Retirement Income for 50,000 over 20 years. Assuming retirement age of 67. For decades americans used their homes as piggy banks. Rising home equity meant second mortgages, refinancing or equity lines were a way to pull cash out of a home. But all that changed in 2007. When americans came locked out of their homes they began to turn to 401ks as the next way to access easy money. For example, outstanding hom home equity loans were down 38 from their peek in 2007. But irs penalties from premature 401k withdraws are up 37 sinc since 2003. 401k plans are structurally flawed. Theyre really do it yourself savings plans that have failed millions of americans miserabl miserablebly. One thing seems certain with the economy running in slow motion americans are running out of piggy banks to crack open. Now depending on your personal financial situation borrowing from your 401k can be good, bad or ugly. Thats according to dug flynn, cofounder of flynn capital management. Doug, we got the point that you have to think hard about whether or not youre going to do that. That 10 penalty, that alone is a hard decision to make. Thats hard money to earn. If you have to do t how do you make it good . Well, the way to make it good you have to look and say, do i have a stable job that im going to be gainfully employed at for a number of years. If you are, if you have very high credit card balances and interest rates, some credit card rates are 20 to 22 , pay back time on credit cards can be 30 or mother years. Streamline the payments get it down to a fiveyear pay back and pay yourself back with some interest at a lower rate and be done with it. The good comes in the fact that in the end in five years you will be done. Discipline. You got to do this. One thing you pointed out. I want to keep this graphic up while im talking about it. The last line where you say no debt and spending less. You feel people have a threshold for debt. They can get carried away and keep running debt up. Thats the hard discipline here. It really is, and so for an example in the good, what youre trying to do there, youre saying the only reason why im doing this is im going to move myself forward. Im going to spend less while spending less on the loan. When im done now i have extra money at the end of each money and now i can Start Building up savings. In those shortterm situations it makes sense. If you pay off your credit card loans and at the end of the 401k loan when its done you run your credit cards all the way back up. You just wasted five years of saving for retirement. Youre five years older and youre basically in the same situation as you were before. Thats not good. Its not ugly. Thats bad because you have not moved forward. People do, they have a threshold. When he have 10,000 in credit cards, they might think twice before putting that extra thing on the credit card. But when its zero, lo and behold it starts to creep up. Thats where the discipline comes in. Lets talk about the ugly. Where does it get worse from bad . For most people it likely doesnt make sense. They have essentially been people who have overspent their whole life. And they suddenly have money built up in their 401k that they can tap. Theyre going to use it as a future extension of their income. Maybe they have 2,000 of net pay and then they spent 3,000, they say oh, i have extra money i can tap. They continue to spend that extra money. Youre going to blow through that and then end up with that debt as well, and no better off. So you have to say im only going to do this if its going to be an improvement in my situation when im done. You dont want to end up blowing the whole thing off in your retirement or worse. It could get worse. You dont have to discipline, youre worse off. Lets get to the point where you consider doing this, what should you also have looked at . The first thing you want to look at, especially if youre a homeowner, a home equity loan. One, is the payment can be stretched out longer. The interest may be tax deductible to you if you have a tax bracket. So presumably you went there first and maybe used that. But again you dont want to take shortterm debt lying the dinner you had lose weak with friends and stretch it out over 10 or 30 years on home equity. But thats a place where you possibly get a better rate and tax deductions. The next place you can go, banks have debt consolidation loans. Theyre higher than these other loan rates like 401k loans but theyre lower than credit card rates. It does solve the problem but it lowers the rates from the 20s to the 10. And not face the penalty of taking out your 401k. You can get on bank rate. Com, on the righthand side there is a drapdown. You can search for Balance Transfer credit card. This is an example where you can find zero cost to transfer. Zero percent interest for 15 months credit cards. And you transfer the balance from the high interest cards to this where its at zero percent. Thats a great deal. Now at the end of 18 months youre going to convert to a regular rate. Thats a great resource to find those. But you have to have credit, and credit available in order to take advantage of that. Its easy to get on the internet and find calculations about how you would take something and make sure that its paid off within that time. If you have a 12month or 15month or 18month window in which you have low interest you want to make sure that its fully paid off. Doug, thank you for taking us through this. Doug flynn, cofounder of flynn management. Tomorrow on the stream. The superstars. I love the underdog role, its us against the world. We have this fight and this pride to play for the country. Pushing for success. Weve gone so far forward, the games really really grown. Gaining popularity. People are crazy for it. Is now the time for u. S. Soccer . Anything is possible. I believe that this u. S. Team, we can beat anybody. The stream, tomorrow 5 30 eastern. Only on al jazeera america. So colorados governor signed legislation that could set up the worlds First Financial system catering to the marijuana business. It creates a pot cooperative similar to credit unions. The legislation still needs approval from the Federal Reserve, and thats less likely. Federal law still considers marijuana use illegal in the United States. Until now colorados pot industry has been stuck doing interest in cash and banks deny them checking accounts because they dont wan want to be accused of laundering drug money from the feds. Here to hatch it out, a Business Reporter from the denver post. David, is that weed on your shirt . Boy, i hope not. This is an interesting topic. Some amount of trade in marijuana has been legalized at the state level but not at the federal level. You realize that our Financial System is lubricated by the ability to get letters of credit, do banking, and the business cant access that. Thats exactly right. Its a big problem in colorado. The Banking System here much like the rest of the nation is reliant of federal law. Businesses that are legal in the state of colorado are unable legally to transact business as other legal businesses can. Checking accounts, credit cards, thats not to say none do. It happens. Its just done quietly. And can they get around this with so many of the new payment means that are out there . You know, obviously the internet apps have made it easier to collect money. Is it still illegal or are they able to manage it. There has been alternatives like bitcoins. No one has figured out how to make it work precisely. There comes a time when you have to convert that form of currency into u. S. Currency if you wish to go shopping, for instance. Where that transaction or transition of one currency to the next happens there is usually a payment process that touches into that federal system. In one manner or another youre always landing in that federal system whereby law marijuana is still an illegal drug. What has the governor of colorado done . This morning he signed a bit of legislation that specifically allows for the creation of what is called a financial cooperative, essentially a credit union for the Marijuana Industry as well as the hemp