Nearly 1m young people out of work

I keep posting over and over about the lack of “first” jobs. The little market town we live in has lost about 4 or 5 pubs in the past few years. The remaining cafes and indie shops are sold traders or family-run. Move onto the bigger retailers and they make the hours such that you need to be 18+ And then there’s the rise of self-service checkouts so no need for as many employees.
My DS had a couple of interviews in places like cafes and garden centre advertising 8 hrs a week on a Saturday or Sunday… only to be told they need someone to be available during the week to cover sickness and holidays so him being at college is a deal breaker. After many attempts at getting cleaning jobs (need to be 18, have experience, we don’t want a teenage boy to clean our house….) he finally got one but they only offer 2 hours a week!!

Young people can’t just “get a job” and it really pisses me off when people can’t see how things have changed. I worked through sixth form and uni, changed jobs with no difficulty when I didn’t like working in a clothes shop!! I don’t think my DS is going to have the same experience.

100%

For anyone trying to help a young person into work this might be of interest https://www.nationaltrustjobs.org.uk/where-you-could-work/apprenticeships/

Benefits are now a lifestyle choice.
I never thought I’d bash benefits. But I work predominantly with people on benefits as a social worker, they’re being paid far more than I am and it stings. Every single family I have worked with for years believes at least one of their children is neurodivergent (trauma entirely overlooked) and it’s like a ticket to a larger property, more benefits etc and not at all to do with the needs of the child.

The problem is the system that enables the high level of benefit fraud. Not only relating to additional needs of course but it’s absolutely common practice to say whatever is needed to fit into a higher bracket.

Honestly, you are deliberately misrepresenting the root of the problem.

The article you linked to says “The UK is experiencing a weak jobs market, with young people particularly affected by cuts in hospitality and graduate schemes”

Thats very different than one million young people deciding a life on benefits is preferable.

From this thread the response rate seems
normal, autism or not.

Because she was living under their roof.

Why is not housing benefit ever included? if your rent is covered by housing benefit the rest is to live on. It's not much but everyone I come across who's on benefits don't seem to count that their rent is actually bloody paid for

@LunaDeBallona I would dearly love to be able to come up with an idea that might help your daughter. Could you tell us what really interests her? What would she ideally like to do?

It’s horrific now, no experience because so many won’t take on pt staff, they just get ft staff to work extra, and making people work for nothing but calling it experience should be banned.

My kid stands out in the freezing cold, pissing rain and wind for 8 hours at a time directing traffic or drunk people, all the other people doing the job are young people too. They certainly don't feel entitled to an executive level position or feel like the job is beneath them but they would like more than 8 hours a month which is why they are all still looking for something else.

Hopefully the companies who do compulsory work placements would be better monitored than last time that was a thing.

My niece worked for the YMCA in a before and after school place for six months on one of the schemes. The whole way through her assessments were brilliant, but then at the end she was told she wasn’t actually suitable for the job full time so they wouldn’t be taking her on. She was let go and they got another young woman on JSA for six months free work. Three weeks later someone FT handed in their notice and my niece got a call offering her that job - a job identical to the one she wasn’t suitable for when it would have meant filling the role they were getting free staff for…

But may be worth it for the young person?

So when you back that -what do you expect them to live on?
How do they get to the interviews (not they get many IMHE), to the job center?
How do they buy toiletries , sanitary wear etc?

My autistic 18 yr old daughter applied for over 100 jobs in a 6 month period last year.
Only ONE got back in touch (to say no thanks). One.
Every application she did she amended her cv to try and say some of the ‘right’ things. But she has no experience so no employer wants to pay her minimum wage when they can get a 30 year old with lots of experience for only a little more.
She would love to work. The job center told her not to put that she is disabled on her cv as they will just go straight in the bin. When employers can employ ‘normal’ people why would they bother with ND ones?
75 people applied for a job in a pub locally. 75. How do young people stand a chance?
For those sayimg ‘ be carers’ that’s an appalling way to think.
Don’t you think people with care needs deserve someone with a bit of life experience and common sense? Just because there are lots of carers positions available does not mean to say everyone can do it.
My daughter cannot bear to be touched or touch strangers so how would that work?

If the government brings in its new workers rights bill then young people will be doomed.
I worry desperately about my child and her friends the majority of whom are in the same position. To be rejected over and over and over again-not even given the decency of a ‘thanks but no thanks’ email is soul and confidence destroying.

If all of you who think it’s easy for young people to find jobs then please give me your sage advice how to help my child as I am utterly out of ideas.
Let’s see what cracking ideas you have.

We can’t turn the clock back and stop Covid from happening.

But rather than blame those giving up, why not look at, and change, the systems that are forcing so many humans to reach this state?

I can’t remember where I read it, but there was a quote about how rotten an environment must be for growing numbers of a population to essentially give up.

Does society really have to continue in a way that is toxic to so many? People are so defeatist about it all, and what changes could bring.

When I was 19 I bought my first flat (with my own money!) and moved out due to an unstable home situation. I would not have been able to do this had I not been paid a fair wage.

absolutely some entry level jobs are enticed to hire young people due to shitty wages, but let’s say two people work in a bar; one is 18 and one is 35. They both do exactly the same work and put in exactly the same effort, why should the 35 year old be paid more?

also just to add that as a young(ish) person I can’t help but feel we get the shaft with everything. Apparently undeserving of a fair wage according to some here, those of us who went to university are burdened with ridiculous loans, add to that we will never see a state pension - what benefits actually are there for young people in this county?

I’m far from someone who would move somewhere like Dubai (largely due to their dubious views around women), but I can easily see the appeal!

So bloody true. When I was a cleaner, there were two girls who were only 18 but they refused to clean toilets because apparently they were too good for that 🙄 that's the exact mindset young people have now

When I left school (large comprehensive school on a council estate) in 1983 the youth unemployment rate was higher than it is now. My group of leavers struggled to get work of any sort.

The choice I had was the dole which I think was about £17 a week or a Youth Opportunity Scheme for £23 a week. I joined the scheme and worked on farms doing a 40 hour week for that money.

My old school friends were also on the YOP, learned skills in the armed forces, became student nurses, did trade apprenticeships.

It's hard to understand why there are so many NEET when the armed services, trades and nursing are all failing to meet recruitment targets. The armed forces haven't met their targets since 2019.

They barely get in front of potential bosses these days, AI filters them out before potential bosses even know that they exist.

I will say however we do recruit a lot of young people successfully (although it's way harder than it should be to get enough applications considering how many are supposed to be looking for work). And the vast majority of young people who come to work for us are brilliant. It's thankfully rare for us to have to fire someone!