This country as gone into terminal decline

[Carmes]

I have 2 young children in school.

I am becoming more and more anxious about what sort of jobs / careers they will have open to them.

I work for very large company with 10,000s of employees.

20 years ago whe I started work here there would be 100s of entry level jobs at any given time. These are jobs that don't require experience or a degree, ideal for a school leaver, and I know dozens of people who started their career this way.

Now there are maybe 10 jobs that would fit the same criteria.so. All the jobs have been offshored.
Now are the vacancies are for very specific technical skill set or experience.

This doesn't bode well for someone who has left school at 18'or even university.

No, not just your country - the world. 😭

I just think we are going backwards. My parents had final salary pension and were able to pay of their mortgages within 10 years. They came to this country and immigrants, and well paid work was plentiful and houses cheap.

Financially I am less secure and my kids will probably be less secure than me.

Everyone will need a degree. Some will even need two degrees.

Except some universities will go bust very soon and it is becoming increasingly financially prohibitive to go so uni will end up becoming the destination for elites only. Entry level jobs are increasingly being done by robots/AI and that trajectory will only increase.

I think owning a home especially in the South of the UK is just a dream now . That ship has sailed and renting will be the norm just as it is in the rest of Europe. I think the infrastructure of the UK has broken down . We are declining in living standards and standards in general . There is no job security anymore. I think people will just live day to day and not plan so much for the future .

Does your company not have apprenticeship and graduate schemes? My workplace has both of those and a strong early careers programme.

There are many people becoming digital nomads now, I think this will be the way forward for a lot of young people now, all you need is a laptop and a decent wifi connection. You can be anywhere in the world.

Can’t see it improving. AI reducing jobs, net immigration increasing - world population rising in fact, people living longer, future pensions a problem.

All pretty gloomy an not limited to the UK.

Things are different for sure and people who try to succeed using the old way will struggle. You have to look carefully at where the advantages are these days.

Sparkies and plumbers don't need a degree, earn a good wage and because of the skills gap and the aging workforce the building industry is crying out for them. And this is true almost everywhere so lots of opportunity to emigrate as a skilled migrant if that's something they'd like to do.

Well, you are right about that too.
It's not just the UK. It's everywhere.

I agree. High Streets are dying, vape shops, drunks, casinos and loud kids in most of them. Immigration doesn't seem to be contributing to cohesion, just little separate communities. Lots of unemployment. Just a bit depressing really. Intolerance of LGBTQ plus so I fear for my gay child going out. Might just be south west but I doubt it.

@twistyizzy

Then it will have come full circle. University used to be hard to get into and only the cleverest of the cleverest went . It was seen as an achievement because it was . Now it's just a money making racket .

Blimey how old are you? I'm 55 and my son plus friends' kids are doing well. All of them work or study or both. When I graduated there were no jobs I could do, one job i applied for had 1400 applicants. Dps daughter just bought a house with her fiance at 28, that's the same age I bought for the first time at.

The housing crisis is real, there's lots of problems but that means there's a ton of work needs doing! The world doesn't look the same as it used to and in a lit of ways that's a good thing. I'd say get positive around your kids, make them part of the solution.

Doing what?

Many of the jobs that you can do remotely will be first on the ai chopping block.

We get the country we deserve, frankly. I’m fed up with people’s inability to do anything other than shrug their shoulders and accept it.

The US is the only major western country showing serious growth, and the attitudes between here and there are night and day. Despite the horror stories, most people here would be much better off in the US.

Don't disagree but the flip to that is it makes WC even less likely to progress to higher education to enable them to get the specialised jobs which require a degree plus the old manual jobs won't exist.

We need more plumbers, electricians, builders etc not more kids with useless degrees and loans they'll never pay back.

Yes it's depressing. My two elder sons have decent jobs for now but I fear for my younger son. I constantly feel the future looks bleak for them. Even if we tried to help them get on the property ladder that will be impossible for us due to us needing to retire soon and pensions not looking great.
So many people in ill health, young and older and claiming sickness benefits, it's unsustainable.

Until they get sick . I've heard some awful stories of people having to sell their homes to pay for medical bills .

Yes - I think it's even more important for people to make smart choices with their money and their kids these days as our public services are in decline and house prices soar. Lots don't seem to take that personal responsibility.

We could afford to move to a bigger house - banks would lend us £750k mortgage based on our salaries! But we're sticking in our modest house (which perfectly meets our needs) and choosing to pay lots into our pensions and moving kids to private secondary school as our local school is horrendous. That feels to us like a wise choice.

We have friends who have essentially taken up the bank on their offer of a huge mortgage and are in the process of buying a £800k house that needs around £200k of work done. We think they're mad but maybe that'll be their pension one day, who knows.

That said FIL and DM's partner are both in late 70s and neither saved into a pension so both are living on state pension only. So it's not just our generation who make mistakes.

what do they do in US?
i dont think they get on the housing ladder as much
what work do they do thats different

DD just got an entry level job but all the ones she applied for had upwards of 600 applicants. Took ages.

I had to keep a game face and not show panic.

Right now we do yes but with a falling population why will we need more houses? Falling populations tend to continue falling because they are linked to the education of women. The higher the education level of women in a population, the fewer kids they have.