Nearly 1m young people out of work

This, exactly. I'm fed up of seeing this narrative pushed that young people are lazy. The job market is just terrible, there was a post on MN today about how people with degrees are getting jobs in supermarkets, so what hope do young people have? It's just another way that the wealthy and powerful have ruined our country and they're spinning it as the fault of individuals instead of taking any accountability

The thing about "entry level" jobs is there used to be an expectation that there would be a career ladder/training. With blue collar jobs too. You might be in one company your whole life. Then it became much more normal to go from job to job and a job for Life wasn't a thing anymore. Plus companies didn't want to invest in training on the job as much - instead young people were expected to do it themselves. In America this was paid for by the young person (and super expensive) in other places it was subsidised by the government.

Now I don't think young people are looking at low paid jobs with unsociable hours and thinking "in a few years time if I do well I'll earn more, and in a few years after that I could be earning a decent wage". They are maybe thinking it won't last long, or will retain the same pay. That might not be the case with your companys jobs - but young peoplé won't know that because work culture is completely different.

Plus, anything in the manufacturing sector can have an air of pessimism to it (rightly or wrongly). Mass layoffs in the 80s and the unhelpful doom and gloom from some papers give the impression it isn't a job with future career advancement. Which is a shame.

Have you tried really emphasizing the possibility of career progression/in work training/a strep raise in wages. I think that can mean móre to young people than starting pay. The pay opportunities might seem obvious to you but not them.

What subject is it?

Exactly! As a teenager, most of us found it easy to get shop/waiting on jobs. Teenagers in my family/neighbourhood apply over and over. One decided to take his CV round town after using Indeed and just being messed around, and businesses chucked it in the bin.
It needs to be made cheaper for businesses to employ people, full stop. And there should be work made available to people on benefits (I claimed JSA myself between jobs in the past, and I would have been very happy to do "volunteer" stuff, eg supporting in schools/hospitals/doing painting in towns etc-much better to be doing that if you're able to, than feel bad moping round the house because you can't find a job).
While I completely disagreed with Rishi Sunak's National Service idea, carefully made programmes that offer skills training, take into account needs, and genuinely help other people (maybe involving travel/living independently to develop adult competences) would be a great idea.

wasn't going back into the 70s - I get the issue I've done both a Level 3 and a Degree through apprenticeships in my current role (but also own the company) - decided I needed some qualifications other than my Irish Intercert as was crap at school.

Lots of YP looking for jobs at 18/19 + is far too late should all have a part-time job from earlier - so important for many things - not just future employability - we currently empoly two14, 15 and 16 YO in my OH business as only a few hours on the weekend and holidays - but the value to them seeing their maths, people and work ethic - all go beyond renumaration (and we pay more than the minimum at 16)

Technology I believe has a part, I worked in a large Morrisons store for over 10 years before going to nursing. When I first worked there we had around 150 employees, by the time I left a couple years back, we had around 70 employees, cuts due to self checkouts etc.

However, my son aged 16, still in school, made his own little handyman type business last year, odd jobs, painting, gardening etc. When he turned 16 he then got a job in McDonald’s and was offered 2 others around the same time, was offered the first 3 jobs he ever applied for, so may be just luck?

Can’t make them homeless? They would be making themselves homeless. Why do you think they should benefit from others hard work? Baffling.

How is that level of earnings going to be funded? It's only possible if cost to the customer increase.

Good luck to him as it sounds like he really wants it. Hope he finds something soon.

I do think with so many degrees (and this isn’t related to his as I know nothing about that area), people could learn exactly the same just doing the job and being in the workplace. Starting out bottom level, working your way up as it always was, training as you go, incentives from the government, more links between schools and workplaces (although this does already seem to be happening).

I think apprenticeships will become the favourite for alot of young people and Uni without a guaranteed job afterwards (and a shed load of debt) is just going to feel so pointless.

Higher wages mean lower top ups, so why do you want to keep them low?

Please tell me where ?
My 19 year old will do anything .

It is not upto the government to create jobs. It is up to the government to create an environment where employers are happy to create jobs and give inexperienced young people a chance. At the moment they are doing a VERY poor job of that.

Your attitude towards apprenticeships being “free money” for companies is inaccurate and insulting. I hope you’ve never told your son this - might explain why he’s not getting anywhere if this is his attitude too.

There is a lot of work for a company to take on an apprentice. Do you have any idea how much time (and therefore money) it takes for someone to train an apprentice. Who pays for any mistakes the apprentice makes? Who has to cover the apprentice while they are at college? Who has to do the reviews, the feedback, all the paperwork for the college?

Well done.to your 19 year old. It shows it takes time but with perseverance it is possible.

@grimupnorthnot In the 70s. Me! No O level maths. Ended up as Member of CIPD though. I wasn’t numerically useless but found maths difficult. Got a HNC with my employer paying and I was very grateful.

There was a bloke on radio 4 the other day and he was being interviewed by the host about finding employment, and he had a degree and a PhD in engineering and lots of experience etc. and he was struggling to find work. If people like this are struggling, how on earth is someone without any qualifications or experience going to manage? Some advertised jobs don't even exist!!! They're called 'ghost jobs' apparently. Fucking wonderful. This is mental torture in my opinion.

How do young people spend their time between applying for non existent jobs? Ds2 goes nocturnal if he's not occupied. This is really bad for mental health. We're planning on paying for some trades training for him after he graduates.

Basically, round here -and it's not just entry-level jobs, one of the Graduate jobs my daughter has been offered has had so few applications they interviewed all of them, others are still open as they can't find suitable candidates - STEM for a massive company. ...... another one she was offered was out of 3000, but that was further south based.

Just looked total unemployment rate, he is under 2% - basically the unemployable - national average is 5.2%

Stop benefits until someone has worked 5 plus years and watch large numbers suddenly find some form of work.

Yes he did, it was a really good area at the time. Game design and development. Then his masters was global MBA and on paper he is highly desirable but here we are

My 19 year old got a job after over a year of applying. She applied for everything but rarely heard back. She got her current job in October and it was such a relief.
I get angry when I hear people saying young people are lazy and don't even try to apply for jobs.
It's not just DD my nephew's, niece and friends children are all struggling to get work. Still every generation seems to look down on young people and think they're lazy.

which I guess highlights that there isn’t actually one solution because there’s not one single problem - different areas have different issues.

i know where BIL lives the hospitality places struggle to find enough staff, but where he lives is now mostly holiday homes and second homes so the people holidaying don’t want/need jobs there.

So you don't understand how the Uni debt works then,,,,,,,

Yes, he's got some really useful groups he attends.

The answer is a wealth tax.

He wasnt looking for work until he'd finished his masters.