Young people in the UK have it tough

[JiIttiIg]

All the news stories are about young people not getting jobs and having to stay with their parents. It used to be they had to stay at home to save for a house, now it's no house and no jobs. Can't see things getting any better in the near future. Is the UK now a country that is failing it's young people. Is it going to be like countries from Eastern or Southern Europe where young people had to outmigrate in order to get a decent life? Can't see any politicians having the right answers.

I think property is an interesting one - also when it stopped being about buying property rather than a home. Selling off Council housing, right to buy, etc. it created something very different, which was supposed to benefit the majority, but of course didn't.

Surely it's of their own making though?

How can it possibly be of their own making? They’re not old enough to be responsible for the state of the economy, lack of social housing, automation or a job market with jobs requiring degrees that were once done with O level education.

Every generation has it's own challenges. I hope there's a way through this current one, with changing global markets and uncertainty.

i work for a local authority and have for a decade - they’re deleting hundreds, maybe thousands by the time they’re finished, of jobs and downgrading even more. Those worst affected are majority early 60s and under 35, particularly those who can’t retire early due to working in a low paid role all their lives and who have just finished an apprenticeship. Worst of all is it’s not being branded as mass scale redundancies, so no voluntary early retirement and only basic voluntary redundancy. The published materials about the change make it very clear that these jobs are being replaced by AI.

I clawed my way up into a flexible hybrid low/ mid management type role through changing jobs every year and doing every type of training possible up until I had my DC 3 years ago and had cancer the year after. I can no longer work like I used to & am part time and terrified that I’ve been targeted for downgrading because of those things. It feels most unfair as others on my grade but slightly different job titles (one who my manager tasked me to spy on!) are absolutely crap or want to be downgraded to have less responsibility - aren’t in scope. This is due to the redundancy teams’ AI categorising job descriptions incorrectly, so now I have to appeal. God knows if it will make a difference. I have applied for PIP based on the impacts cancer has had on me, declined by two points. I’m absolutely knackered and so anxious I feel sick all the time.

No wonder the birth rate is declining so rapidly, why would anyone feel comfortable having more babies in this kind of situation!

Not quite. I remember the recession from 1990 when all the graduate jobs were pulled, people went into negative equity etc. Until then, people had ‘jobs for life’ , but managers etc were all loosing their jobs and people established in their careers were all being made redundant, a situation that hadn’t happened before, and redundancies were almost considered shameful then.

its much more accepted to flit between jobs today, and a period of redundancy is considered par for the course.

Yes it's really worrying. I have teens & I'm worried about their future

Meanwhile I was made redundant at age 38! I'm now almost 40 and can't find work. I've tried cafes, supermarkets, pubs, office work, the career I used to have - nobody is hiring.

It's really scary!

The fallback jobs (TA, supermarket and admin at the council and NHS = they are not hiring. In fact the NHS, council and schools local to me are actually making people redundant too!)

So many cafes, chippies and pubs are closing down.

Just three years ago I had a good STEM career doing one of those "skills shortage" jobs. I was so proud of myself.

☹️

Retirement age being pushed up.
Women used to retire at 60
Men 65
They are both now 66

While people might be living longer, they aren't necessarily in good health.

It's quite obvious: millions of people willing to work for less wages than existing workers does OF COURSE suppress wages and will OF COURSE take up housing. It is very simple to understand, for some reason the young support this state of affairs then complain that life is hard. You have to laugh!

I do think more apprenticeships would help. We need more skilled trades people. I've struggled to get electricians, plasterers and plumbers, of late; they're all fully booked up, even at premium rates. For all the threads on here about tradies being dirty, exploitative theives, they are necessary, and should be valued.

Exactly

Thats scary.
I'm terrified for my teen. Watching cousins with degrees doing pub jobs is hardly encouraging to get him to study for exams.

I've felt for years a lot of issues in rough area schools is due to lack of hope, lack of seeing education as the way out.
It can't be long before even the nice schools are the same.

Lots of these are small businesses and are wary of making a commitment to a kid for a 3 year period.

The old YTS scheme did actually support businesses take kids on without too much risk of having to pay wages in the lean weeks.
As much as many felt it was exploited it did actually do something

A few years ago I would have agreed with all of this. But given the direction of the EU I don't think your kid's passports will do all that much good unfortunately.

You're not wrong

YOP,YTS schemes were exploitation£25 a week that was shit even by early 80s standards.1st year apprentices were generally paid £40 a week at the time.

1.8 million jobs have been lost as a direct result of Brexit. Brought to us by the Tory government and campaigned for by Reform

Yes they were exploited, but they were better than nothing, which is what we have now.

I’m afraid it’s becoming a dog-eat-dog world, where the billionaires safely and quietly continue to amass wealth out of the public eye, and the rest of us start fighting over the scraps.

Realistically it’s a situation no government can completely fix. It’s like they’re in charge of feeding the five thousand with loaves and fish. We argue about how to split the loaves and fish and who should get more and why, and how we can individually catch more fish, while the sea is being trawled by oligarchs who aren’t sharing anything back.

I am very much a glass half empty type and am seriously worried. I have two ds's mid- late twenties who are doing ok but worry hugely for my younger two. I am just constantly telling myself that in the worst case scenario that they need to live at home forever at least we have a home big enough to house them. I appreciate many don't and many poor kids have parents living in poverty and no room. We will see huge increases in crime and kids sleeping rough. The government seriously need some cross party action on this looming disaster. Not only can graduates not get any kind of jobs let alone a decent paying one but they have massive student loans with interest increasing at a ridiculous rate. FGS the government need to wipe these loans now. All they are bothered about are the pensioners.

If you think it’s simple you’re not paying attention. There are a lot of factors at play here. Undercutting wages is no longer possible unless it’s an off books business.

Who knows if that is true or not, but that is no reason for Labour to make it worse by failing to control welfare and taxing people until they leave the country.

They were but of my teenage friends who did them they ended up in great jobs. One friend did a YTS with Barclays and ended up with a top banking job and now nicely retired mid fifties.

My retirement age is 67. I work with 4 others who are either coming up to 60 or, like me, have reached it. Out of the 4 of us1 is currently off recovering from knee replacement surgery, 1 has just got back after a hernia op and I'm under the care of the cardiology team having had a major heart attack in 2024. So 3 of us who, back in the old days would be retired, are now struggling on doing a physically demanding job, whilst 3 young, fit and more active people cannot get jobs. Our work isn't difficult (it's working at the end of a machine, packing). Do I feel guilty, yes but I cannot afford to give my job up as my savings/private pension won't last the 7 years until my SP kicks in. If the retirement age went back to 63 then I could step aside and give someone else a chance but that costs £ so there is no solution really.

Yes I know a fair few people who went on to having great careers kicked off with YTS.
Basically it took the risk of having an apprentices away from small businesses.