12 Oct 2011

Young workers never more challenged than now

It is one of the front lines of Britain’s youth jobs crisis. The Young Foundation’s Fastlaners programme is designed to equip smart young adults with the confidence to get jobs in a torrid market. For the past few months we’ve followed 20 graduates who are having to learn every trick in the book to get a job even an interview in Britain’s flat economy.

In the spring they were jumping aross a line on a floor to pronounce how they would improve their communications skills or confidence to brilliant executive volunteer tutors.

The scheme being run in the shadow of Canary Wharf. One participant telling me that he came from the local area but had no idea how to get a job in this citadel of capitalism. The theme: that the deluge of job applications was not working, and that many of these graduates were beginning to work in pubs and retail.

Young workers have never been more challenged than now. It’s not just the highest youth unemployment since records began, the hundreds of job applications, but also the gradual realisation that career paths open even to their older brothers and sisters are slamming shut. A generation in danger of being lost.

Today’s figures show there are now 991 thousand 16 to 24-year-olds who are unemployed, up by 74 thousand over the summer and the highest number on record. Unemployment across the workforce is now 2.57m, up by 114,000. The worst number since the autumn of 1994, 17 years ago.

The government blamed the eurozone crisis, at prime ministers questions, the opposition blamed the government. The prime minister does seem rather attached to this “half a million” private sector jobs statistic, that is now no longer true. It might just be a repeated slip of the tongue. But it suggests that the government is not quite familiar with the actual plummeting job creation in the private sector. Vacancies in particular, have tumbled from small and medium sized businesses. Some might call it denial.

It is also true to say that despite today’s records, really, it is a form of economic miracle that the unemployment rate is not yet higher. The economy has basically been flat for a year. we now know that the recession of 08/09 was even worse than we thought at the time. Firms have hoarded labour, productivity has plummeted (unlike in the US) and young people have been shut out of jobs. In turn there is a “concertina effect” where graduates are going for retail and hospitality jobs, pushing some of the lower-skilled out of jobs.

Today I caught up with two of the participants from the Fastlaners scheme. She did manage to get a design job through Fastlaners contacts. He is having to intern for free right now.

He, Aaron, says: “People are having to lower expectations. We’re overqualified for the jobs we’re going for”.

She, Aneela, says: “There are just too few jobs for the people chasing them,” expressing concern about political and news descriptions of “work-shy youth”.

Not just that. When you combine the youth jobs crisis with rapidly rising rents, a non-existent housing ladder, fees etc etc, I think our politics is hugely underserving our 20somethings right now.

Six months into Fastlaners, less than half, nine out of 20 of these skilled highly motivated young adults managed to get jobs, and two of those were abroad. This was not for want of application or talent. I can’t imagine a more motivated selection of youth. A microcosm of a tough jobs market, thats getting even tougher.

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