This exists most places, including the US.  In some states, you pretty much are pernamently "on probation".

But what can you say if you've been actively looking for work and everyone has said no, do you say "I'm sorry, I've been looking for work for ages, but no-one has offered me a job."  Doesn't make you look very good does it?  Even if you have tried you darndest to get a job.  The fact is job-hunting is an unequal game.  Nearly all the cards are with the employer, and some prospective employees just get sick of being handed the Joker all the time.  The bigger the bar to clear, the less people will get over it - one, because raising the height reduces the number of people who can clear it successfully, and for those who might be able to clear the bar, there may be a lot who get disillusioned after the fiftieth rejection and just give up looking, even if they *may* have got a job on the fifty-first try.  And how would they know that the next try is going to be any better?  Isn't the USA in recession or even depression at the moment?

I agree that for those that never try it's different, but you can't always tell whether they have seriously tried if they have no previous "on-the-job experience".

It's easy to verbally bash young people and imply they are lazy, but if it happens on a massive scale, it's not massive laziness, it's massive and chronic problems with the system.  I firmly believe most people would try their heart out to impress an employer even if only offered a three-month trial.  What percentage of people get the chance?  And why are so many people in China and other countries putting up with such dreadful conditions and getting paid so little and what may only very marginally reduce poverty rather than providing what they really need?  It just goes to show that if you're desperate, you'll accept any job offer you get.  But if you both try people out by providing 3-month trials *AND* provide positive working conditions and renumeration in a poor job market, you just may get some of your hardest working and loyal employees that it is possible to get.

The original post has one obvious fallacy. If you never accept people without experience, how the hell are they gonna get some? I know a lot of motivated, knowledgeable students, and I have met CEOs and senior executives who knew little besides internal intrigue, playing golf with the right people and stabbing their betters in the back. 

Oh yes, we need to rationalize and justify interns - we have a crisis, every free position has several candidates, so let'em work for free. Free workforce is always nice - for the employer. Would you be willing to work for free yourself? Of course not. You are a different case, an experienced, knowledgeable, motivated, senior employee. 

There used to be a nice site - fuckthatjob.com - full of similar ads offering to work for free. Too bad it's down now. I enjoyed the reading.

And one more thing - if more people start thinking the same, and refuse to employ young, educated, but inexperienced people, the society will create a lost generation. A generation of disillusioned and educated people who were promised their share of the "american dream", but were let down. The same kind of people who initiated the series of unrests called the Arab Spring. 

If it was presented that way, then sure.  Interns very often are not hired on full time and that's perfectly normal.  Or that said, if I was interviewing someone, I'd simply ask them about their experience in the internship at X location. 

English speakers can't get a job in McDonalds anyway.

People who think young people should just go out and get a job are out of touch with the times and probably a lot older. I am very fortunate that with the Aerospace upswing my skills are highly sought after and I'm constantly recruited by headhunters. Unfortunately not so for my younger nieces and nephews. I have a nephew who is a hard worker in Portland, OR and pounds the pavement every weekday he doesn't have a job. While he has gotten a bunch of temp jobs, he hasn't landed ANYTHING permanent in over 3 years. He is incredibly discouraged but makes himself keep doing it because he is in his 20s and wants to be able to support himself outside his parents' house.

Even in the Aerospace industry I work in, a lot of the positions we're able to get people who are ridiculously overqualified. These people should be able to get higher level positions, but there is just too much competition for it.

There is a MAJOR MISCONCEPTION that the recession hits all people equally. It simply doesn't. People in there 50s have an easier time getting a job with lots of experience than people like myself in their 30s. People like myself have it much, much easier than young people in their teens and 20s with little or no work experience and special skills. Without my special skill set I'd be one of the ex-Navy or Airforce mechanics-electricians doing a barely above minimum wage assembly job on the shop floor. They need all their military training and experience to get those jobs which 5 years ago would have been going to the high school graduates, who are forced to look elsewhere.

I'm not saying Draginol should just "give" them a job they haven't earned. As someone who has had to hire people under me multiple times I always get the best I can. But this future work force generation is getting caught off and from a 10,000 ft view it is awful for all of us because a whole generation is going to have less opportunity and skills than those who went before. It isn't their fault either but the direct fault of the earlier generation which is benefiting from it the most and currently in political office. Consider it when you vote. Those kids who can't find a job will one day be needed to pay your retirement.

'enuf' - that qualifies you for McDonalds

I do sales and the problem there is for every good sales job there are twenty run by greedy idiots who'll burn out their sales force's credibility and their potential customer base just to churn bucks for a quarter till they send a new batch to another new territory they haven't burned yet when that one collapses.

To make a living with a family, you need a really credible company to work for.

I blame NAFTA.

Prostitution of their work force for a bad payed job in many cases (go Marx, go!). Being abused by their superiors, having to work many unpaid hours or doing tasks that don't belong to them without getting paid extra, for fear to lose their jobs. And stuff like that. Seen it, suffered it. Not a fan.

Let's be serious, in most cases if you are not a boss, you are nothing but a disposable tool for a soulless company. Not that I can complain about treatment too much as I have always have had good relationships with my bosses and mates, but doesn't change that I have been nothing but a (currently unemployed) tool.

Being able to go to work 5 days a week at the same time should be something that any college graduate should be able to do without any job experience. At least if he used to go to class, you know (which may include discipline and responsability). In any case, no one is born with job experience and everybody has a first time (be it at 14 or 40 years old). We love to joke how companies love to deny young people positions because they lack experience while at the same time they also deny older people positions because they are "too old".   But it could also being that my country is a bad joke.

bull.

The term is "at will employment" and has nothing to do with the term "Right to Work" states.

The "right to work" legislation just gives employees the right to choose weather or not to be part of a union. They can no longer be forced in to it and watch their dues line the pockets of politicians and "special interest" groups.

Is it *really* that hard for a kid to get a part time summer job.  Man, I started working when I was 11.  Local farmer would pick me and the other kids up at 6am and we'd pick Raspberries until the afternoon.  Made like 35 cents a quart.

I'd then make 75 cents a bucket later in the summer climbing up in cherry trees picking the cherries that didn't come down with the picker machines.

I hit the "jackpot" when I was 12 and was stuffing newpaper inserts for a quarter of a cent an insert (yes, 1 penny for 4 inserts) every Saturday morning.  And that was year round, would make around $30 a week doing that.

Then summer would come and I'd be packing tomatoes or something.  Farmers love kids that want to work.

When I was able to drive I washed dishes at a local restaurant.  Did that until I was 18 when I got my first retail job stocking shelves.  In college I worked that retail job.  Also did odd jobs on campus like work the parking lot for football games or in the library.  Colleges are always hiring students to do these type of things.  It's something.

I mean come on, there are TONS of menial things that people will pay teens to do if they aren't afraid of work.  Perhaps it's easier growing up in a smaller town, fancy that.

And I know all about unemployment.  I got laid off in 2009 and went 14 months with no work. 

Anyway, my point is Brad wants someone who did *something*.  Even if it was just working the parking lot at football games and washing dishes.  I refuse to believe that a teen can't get a job doing this type of stuff on campus if they want to.  I know I would much rather work 3rd shift for 4 hours at the computer lab then flip burgers.