It’s the summer of 1987, and recent college grad James Brennan (Jesse Eisenberg) can’t wait to begin his long-anticipated dream trip to Europe. Unfortunately, James’ plans come to a screeching halt when his parents announce that they are unable to subsidize his trip and he’ll need to get a job.

When an individual is actively looking for work, unemployment can be categorized as frictional, structural, or cyclical. James is thrown into the job market early, but finding a job does not happen immediately for James. He is turned down for a restaurant job and an asphalt mixer driver because he lacks the skills necessary to do the work. For classification purposes, James is finding that he is structurally unemployed. If there were jobs available in other areas that needed his skills in comparative literature, economists would consider him frictionally unemployed.

Thanks to Amanda Mandzik for the clip suggestion!