To think businesses need to step up.

Was your ds first job accountancy/consultancy type as I've heard of many doing this...in 2008, covid era and now as AI is starting to bite.

Did he dump the first job and then look for another company...could he have held onto the job offer in case it did start in January?

Well done on him on getting another job as it is tough out there. There are too many Grads for not enough jobs, yet it seems the Uni sector are still over offering just to get revenue

It would all be a lot better if the Government made it easier for small firms to employ youngsters, reduced the cost of employing them, set up a grant/support scheme that was easy to use, reduce a lot of the burden of dealing with the apprentice scheme and/or colleges etc. I'd say we should introduce a modern version of the YTS,JTS and ETS schemes of the 1980s where small firms could easily take on a young or unemployed member of staff paid for initially by the Government for x number of months. Small firms employ more than any other sector, yet they're the ones who've typically stopped recruiting. Bigger firms are better able to cope with the admin and bureaucracy of the apprenticeships and other support schemes that are "bureaucracy" heavy.

I'm a small business accountant, and literally none of my current small business clients (100 or so) either employ a youngster/trainee nor have any plans to do so. It's never been so bad. Back in the 80s when I started, it was typical for small firms to have a trainee/youngster, even sole traders/self employed often had one, who they'd train up, but back then it was simpler, less bureaucratic, less expensive etc., and of course, there wasn't the risk of being sued for compensation for some kind of "ism" if they were let go!

My DS spent dozens if not hundreds of hours when he started his final year at Uni and started applying for graduate scheme jobs. They were mostly so long drawn out and convoluted that he set up his own home-made database to track applications, stages, completion deadlines for each stage, etc. otherwise he was afraid he'd miss a deadline for some online quiz or task or pre-recorded interview, or pre-recorded presentation. It became an all-encompassing job in itself. Trouble is the bigger firms use recruitment consultancies - he did notice that sometimes different employers were using the same tests/quizzes etc the only difference being the background colours and logos were using the employer's marketing as the only tangible difference - obviously using the same recruitment agency. Some of the online tasks were utterly ludicrous and clearly designed just to test resilience, i.e. record how long and how many times they tried to do a task which turned out was impossible to gauge whether they were the kind to give up easily or doggedly carry on. He utterly hated it all, until he started getting to the final stages where the system transferred him to the respective firm's own HR/recruitment depts which was when he finally got real person-to-person contact in real time online interviews. They just use it all as a way of "weeding out" to get the best candidates and don't waste time on the others. He got so demoralised by the whole thing, I'm surprised he didn't give it up. But when he did short listed at the final stages, he actually really enjoyed proper live online meetings with the HR dept staff and managers etc. I actually wonder if those firms realised just how bad were the recruitment firms procedures? It does seem to be more a test of resilience and stamina rather than their qualifications, experience, personality, aptitude etc.

Fingers crossed for your DCs OP, even getting an interview is an achievement these days so if they have secured employment that is a positive.

https://www.ft.com/content/16e2d97b-29e0-4a16-805e-f79ec2b15a5f?syn-25a6b1a6=1

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/czx2qll4rlyo?app-referrer=deep-link

I agree OP, the employment market it’s very difficult in general but particularly hard for young people starting out. There has been lots of stories similar to your experience in the media this week. What I find most difficult is the hoops they have to jump through even for the most basic entry level part time jobs. These days a student part time job requires a series of steps including online questionnaires annd tests before you ever get an interview. Don’t get me started on AI interviews to screen people out.

The second scenario is pretty common - attracting new talent often costs more than retaining talent. DD should ask for a raise. The first I have never heard of happening… that would leave many adults unable to pay their rent etc

It does sound poor about the first company. With the second I find it a bit hard to believe that if you did some further digging that you would not find out that the roles and responsibilities were not exactly comparable which might explain things.

But one background fact that is often overlooked is that the government have made it a lot more expensive to employ people increasing the minimum wage by more than inflation and increasing the tax employers pay on their employees can sound popular but the reality is that it deters employers from employing more people and the costs just get passed on to consumers through higher prices!