Employers still demand too much for entry-level roles and that really hampers young people’s chances to get their foot in the door. I know person specifications are more guidelines in many cases, however they still prefer you meet all the extensive requirements, which can be tough when you are 22 and have little more than retail or hospitality experience. It is not helped by older employees retiring later, preventing other employees moving up the ladder and blocking off entry-level positions to younger people at the same time.
Being a young adult with autism the world of work was already difficult enough without covid. I fear I’ll never be able to crack it.
Even then they don’t get paid enough to live. The drawbridge to life just got completely pulled up and many are left behind. Wages disconnected from inflation means working isn’t a route to being able to afford to live. Our society and civilisation is very ill.
I was sad to miss the 80s the first time round so maybe this is good?
I have moved sideways 3 times in the last 12 months for a better salary. My current employer pays £6k more per year than my last job for basically the same roll because no one internally was deemed to have enough experience. My CV shows lots of relevant experience but no progression within one business over 2 years. My current employer is also showing signs of upward progression and when I feel I have learned enough I will look for something else with a better salary.
I’m 34 now but this has been the case since I entered the work force.
I really feel for school leavers and graduates today, I know what they’re about to go through and it’s going to suck.
I graduated in 2010 and I was relatively lucky to find a 16 hour per week job in retail, which I was stuck in for two years before I found a full time call centre job in 2012.
It wasn’t for another 15 months that I was able to get myself a nicer office job (still just £17k a year but holy shit was it a step up from what I’d been making before).
I was 26 at that point, in a job that I could have gone into at 18 if I’d been born just a few years earlier before the crash hit.
That’s exactly what people are going to go through now and for the next few years, and it makes me furious that the government have done nothing but line their pockets and appease their donors at the expense of improving people’s livelihoods by genuine degrees.
A huge problem with today’s job market, that seems lost on older generations is that when my parents were my age (70’s, 80’s) they worked a full-time job to be able to buy a house, save up, go on holiday, have kids.
Today, young people work full-time jobs to be able to not do any of those things. The cost of living has skyrocketed while wages haven’t, leaving a lot of young people feeling disenfranchised with the whole idea of working, not just with the job they’re in at the minute.
I studied journalism for three years at university, got an entry-level job, and found myself in an editor’s role with the pay of a junior reporter. How can a job demand a degree to be considered but pay the same as stacking shelves at Sainsbury’s?
I don’t necessarily think there’s a lack of jobs – there certainly aren’t in my field – but the pay simply doesn’t match the work and that’s the same in a hell of a lot of “*entry-level*” jobs.
Just yet another facet of our contradictory Schrodinger’s job market where we’re told on the one hand it’s an employees market and you can name your price but on the other we have the usual procession of say faced oxbridge graduates working at their local forecourt Costa.
I’ve been saying this for a while now but there needs to be done serious investment in a public careers advice service. We clearly have demand and no takers in some areas of the market (I’m not just talking about abbatoires and the like) and an over supply in other areas.
Shouldn’t take a rocket scientist to put two and two together here. Looks like a textbook market failure; isn’t that what government is *for*?
I have no experience and deal with social anxiety so it’s an actual nightmare for me.
tory voice “The youths are lazier now, they should work for me for free”
2008 all over again. And after their exams/ uni experiences have been ruined I really feel for young people and worry about their mental health.
And then when they do get employment they are forced to spend 50-60% of their income to share a house with 2-4 strangers or stay living at home into their 30s.
I keep thinking something has got to give sooner or later but we continue on this spiral of doom, I expect I will be paying 80-90% of my income on a single bunk bed by 2030.
Don’t “chronic” and “long-term” basically mean the same thing
There are plenty of jobs available. People often aren’t aware of them, or lack experience/skills/qualifications. Often, it’s entirely outside of their control. But if anyone’s in that situation, I’d implore people not to make the mistake I did – trying to get a career in an incredibly competitive field that requires unpaid internships. You can very easily get a job within 6 months if you are willing to do something a bit dull with lots of entry level vacancies, e.g. in the IT sector. You might need to take a short course/work experience placement. Companies like FDM group are often good for this.
This isn’t new, it’s been happening for over a decade now we just drag out this fact every economic downturn.
The system doesnt work, it’s fails so many. And most politicans just buff out dents and leave the problems unresolved
combination of UBI and MetaVerse work should fix that if we are willing to Matrix the next gen
[deleted]
We also don’t want to work for what is on offer.
Wages today, even if you have a good degree like myself, are a fucking joke compared to what they were 40 years ago.
Starting a family is just off the table because it is only going to get worse.
Our future will just be financial crisis after financial crisis and we will take the brunt of it every time.
I recently got out of a retail job I worked for 6 years at. Got a degree during that time, quit my job and looked for work elsewhere.
I didn’t hear back from any non-retail jobs. I now work for the same amount of money at a much worse company. 6 years and nothing to show for it. I had to move back in with my mum and even then I can barely afford rent with my partner.
Plenty of lorry driving jobs and fruit/veg picker jobs going …
For any young people just starting out in their careers or looking to start out soon I would strongly suggest trying out software engineering if it’s something that appeals to you. It can be lucrative, demand is high and there’s a huge skills shortage worldwide.
My personal data point is starting out in the early 2000s without a degree at 18 on around 8-10k. This quickly shifted to mid 20s, 30s, and 40s over the next 5-8 years. Current salary some 15 years later is roughly 150k (£) working for a US (regular, non-faang startup) company remotely.
Even within the local UK market you can push towards 100k with experience (and ability) or over the 100k mark when looking at contract roles. I see plenty of perm roles being sent my way these days around the 70-80k mark and contract roles will be in the 450-600 region. There’s no sign of the market cooling down any time soon.
I mean, what incentives are there?
I was perfectly content with living on benefits and earning cash under the table. At some point I went legit. So what I’ve learned is quite simple. If the government learns you’re working, it fines you every time you earn a paycheck on top of no longer paying you. so the government punishes you for working, and rewards you for not. so the incentive structure is towards what I was doing before.
Between benefits and under the table work I worked out I was on really high income in terms of getting my accomodation, utilities etc paid for and the disposable cash I had on hand. That worked out better for me than when I eventually did land a job.
The pay doesn’t match the work I’m putting in. If skimming a few walls a week with plaster under the table plus welfare is less effort and more money each month then what the fuck is the point of actually working?
God knows starting out doing things the “legit” way would have been impossible. I don’t know how law abiding people are supposed to make it.
The big bollocks more like… There’s jobs fucking everywhere.
Well now you do. As someone who works at a manual labourer recruiter. I can tell you first hand the there are absolutely loads of jobs out there which before a lot upped and left, were being done happily by eastern Europeans. If the youth of today are struggling to look for a job I’d suggest they lower their expectations if they want to start on the road to employment.
Thought there was so many businesses unable to recruit?
Once the employers currently whingeing about not being able to fill their roles on terrible wages any more wise up, there should be more worthwhile jobs available for people already in the labour market.
To be honest any 18-19-20 year old who is NEET is probably largely responsible for that situation. Sign up for a university or vocational course and get some skills, or find a business that runs apprenticeships on the job, if you don’t want to start out with an entry level supermarket job or similar.
26 comments
Employers still demand too much for entry-level roles and that really hampers young people’s chances to get their foot in the door. I know person specifications are more guidelines in many cases, however they still prefer you meet all the extensive requirements, which can be tough when you are 22 and have little more than retail or hospitality experience. It is not helped by older employees retiring later, preventing other employees moving up the ladder and blocking off entry-level positions to younger people at the same time.
Being a young adult with autism the world of work was already difficult enough without covid. I fear I’ll never be able to crack it.
Even then they don’t get paid enough to live. The drawbridge to life just got completely pulled up and many are left behind. Wages disconnected from inflation means working isn’t a route to being able to afford to live. Our society and civilisation is very ill.
I was sad to miss the 80s the first time round so maybe this is good?
I have moved sideways 3 times in the last 12 months for a better salary. My current employer pays £6k more per year than my last job for basically the same roll because no one internally was deemed to have enough experience. My CV shows lots of relevant experience but no progression within one business over 2 years. My current employer is also showing signs of upward progression and when I feel I have learned enough I will look for something else with a better salary.
I’m 34 now but this has been the case since I entered the work force.
I really feel for school leavers and graduates today, I know what they’re about to go through and it’s going to suck.
I graduated in 2010 and I was relatively lucky to find a 16 hour per week job in retail, which I was stuck in for two years before I found a full time call centre job in 2012.
It wasn’t for another 15 months that I was able to get myself a nicer office job (still just £17k a year but holy shit was it a step up from what I’d been making before).
I was 26 at that point, in a job that I could have gone into at 18 if I’d been born just a few years earlier before the crash hit.
That’s exactly what people are going to go through now and for the next few years, and it makes me furious that the government have done nothing but line their pockets and appease their donors at the expense of improving people’s livelihoods by genuine degrees.
A huge problem with today’s job market, that seems lost on older generations is that when my parents were my age (70’s, 80’s) they worked a full-time job to be able to buy a house, save up, go on holiday, have kids.
Today, young people work full-time jobs to be able to not do any of those things. The cost of living has skyrocketed while wages haven’t, leaving a lot of young people feeling disenfranchised with the whole idea of working, not just with the job they’re in at the minute.
I studied journalism for three years at university, got an entry-level job, and found myself in an editor’s role with the pay of a junior reporter. How can a job demand a degree to be considered but pay the same as stacking shelves at Sainsbury’s?
I don’t necessarily think there’s a lack of jobs – there certainly aren’t in my field – but the pay simply doesn’t match the work and that’s the same in a hell of a lot of “*entry-level*” jobs.
Just yet another facet of our contradictory Schrodinger’s job market where we’re told on the one hand it’s an employees market and you can name your price but on the other we have the usual procession of say faced oxbridge graduates working at their local forecourt Costa.
I’ve been saying this for a while now but there needs to be done serious investment in a public careers advice service. We clearly have demand and no takers in some areas of the market (I’m not just talking about abbatoires and the like) and an over supply in other areas.
Shouldn’t take a rocket scientist to put two and two together here. Looks like a textbook market failure; isn’t that what government is *for*?
I have no experience and deal with social anxiety so it’s an actual nightmare for me.
tory voice “The youths are lazier now, they should work for me for free”
2008 all over again. And after their exams/ uni experiences have been ruined I really feel for young people and worry about their mental health.
And then when they do get employment they are forced to spend 50-60% of their income to share a house with 2-4 strangers or stay living at home into their 30s.
I keep thinking something has got to give sooner or later but we continue on this spiral of doom, I expect I will be paying 80-90% of my income on a single bunk bed by 2030.
Don’t “chronic” and “long-term” basically mean the same thing
There are plenty of jobs available. People often aren’t aware of them, or lack experience/skills/qualifications. Often, it’s entirely outside of their control. But if anyone’s in that situation, I’d implore people not to make the mistake I did – trying to get a career in an incredibly competitive field that requires unpaid internships. You can very easily get a job within 6 months if you are willing to do something a bit dull with lots of entry level vacancies, e.g. in the IT sector. You might need to take a short course/work experience placement. Companies like FDM group are often good for this.
This isn’t new, it’s been happening for over a decade now we just drag out this fact every economic downturn.
The system doesnt work, it’s fails so many. And most politicans just buff out dents and leave the problems unresolved
combination of UBI and MetaVerse work should fix that if we are willing to Matrix the next gen
[deleted]
We also don’t want to work for what is on offer.
Wages today, even if you have a good degree like myself, are a fucking joke compared to what they were 40 years ago.
Starting a family is just off the table because it is only going to get worse.
Our future will just be financial crisis after financial crisis and we will take the brunt of it every time.
I recently got out of a retail job I worked for 6 years at. Got a degree during that time, quit my job and looked for work elsewhere.
I didn’t hear back from any non-retail jobs. I now work for the same amount of money at a much worse company. 6 years and nothing to show for it. I had to move back in with my mum and even then I can barely afford rent with my partner.
Plenty of lorry driving jobs and fruit/veg picker jobs going …
For any young people just starting out in their careers or looking to start out soon I would strongly suggest trying out software engineering if it’s something that appeals to you. It can be lucrative, demand is high and there’s a huge skills shortage worldwide.
My personal data point is starting out in the early 2000s without a degree at 18 on around 8-10k. This quickly shifted to mid 20s, 30s, and 40s over the next 5-8 years. Current salary some 15 years later is roughly 150k (£) working for a US (regular, non-faang startup) company remotely.
Even within the local UK market you can push towards 100k with experience (and ability) or over the 100k mark when looking at contract roles. I see plenty of perm roles being sent my way these days around the 70-80k mark and contract roles will be in the 450-600 region. There’s no sign of the market cooling down any time soon.
I mean, what incentives are there?
I was perfectly content with living on benefits and earning cash under the table. At some point I went legit. So what I’ve learned is quite simple. If the government learns you’re working, it fines you every time you earn a paycheck on top of no longer paying you. so the government punishes you for working, and rewards you for not. so the incentive structure is towards what I was doing before.
Between benefits and under the table work I worked out I was on really high income in terms of getting my accomodation, utilities etc paid for and the disposable cash I had on hand. That worked out better for me than when I eventually did land a job.
The pay doesn’t match the work I’m putting in. If skimming a few walls a week with plaster under the table plus welfare is less effort and more money each month then what the fuck is the point of actually working?
God knows starting out doing things the “legit” way would have been impossible. I don’t know how law abiding people are supposed to make it.
The big bollocks more like… There’s jobs fucking everywhere.
Well now you do. As someone who works at a manual labourer recruiter. I can tell you first hand the there are absolutely loads of jobs out there which before a lot upped and left, were being done happily by eastern Europeans. If the youth of today are struggling to look for a job I’d suggest they lower their expectations if they want to start on the road to employment.
Thought there was so many businesses unable to recruit?
Once the employers currently whingeing about not being able to fill their roles on terrible wages any more wise up, there should be more worthwhile jobs available for people already in the labour market.
To be honest any 18-19-20 year old who is NEET is probably largely responsible for that situation. Sign up for a university or vocational course and get some skills, or find a business that runs apprenticeships on the job, if you don’t want to start out with an entry level supermarket job or similar.