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.

DH and I have step parents and all 8 of our parents retired / stopped working in their 40s. They're all now mid 70s.

I can't imagine that being the "norm" by choice!

It's all so bleak now

Edited to add that I love working & really hoping I find a new role soon at 40. 🤞 probably not in STEM though.

It is true. 1.8 million jobs have been lost as a direct result of Brexit and the economy has shrunk. Brexiters were warned the country would go into decline as a result of Brexit and it has. Companies have invested in the EU including Ireland instead of the UK and jobs were lost. Labour can't work miracles unfortunately. More benefits are having to be paid because young people can't find jobs and older people are being made redundant and unable to find jobs.

It’s never been the norm. It’s actually unheard of.

Unheard of? 🤣

Yes, until you posted I’d literally never heard of any ordinary person retiring in their 40s. Lots of career changes, no retirements.

The past is just that though

Right now the young of today have to look forward.

AI can’t replace food, and people still want to meet up and socialise, many don’t because many venues have shut down or where they live is too small.

Escape rooms for instance, these didn’t exist when I was a young adult, or at least not in any great number, board games, again they multiply yearly it seems. Many households are making their garden space an additional room in the summer.
People don’t want to drink but do want to relax and be social I think functional drinks are going to be a big part of socialising in the future.

And services to the rich is a growing job market, there was one assistant explaining how on Valentines Day she spent the whole day trekking round New York trying to get a bakery to make muffins with jelly love hearts not chocolate in them, again utterly bonkers but it keeps the world turning.

The young should have ideas, fill gaps, challenge laws and financial systems, get involved.

Things won’t go back to how they were this decade, although with dropping birth rates and independent housing at the moment I can see a drop in prices for both rent and purchase, there is only so far grandparent inheritance can stretch between 2 children and 5 grandchildren.

Pets! The amount of money people spend on their pets now is jaw dropping. Possibly because they replace humans for contact?

And the therapists of the future will need to be trained in social media damage, isolation, there are new problems to solve with therapy. There was this crazy article about in the future AI bots would need therapists, that would be a crazy career.

We all need to change with this new world.
Good and bad. And this includes youngsters.

We are moving out of the old world of meeting up, having a drink, meeting someone, having your own space to forge a relationship, but that doesn’t mean there is no fun and enjoyment to pursue and work to be done and new jobs being invented all the time.

i had one parent retire at 50, one at 58.

very working class- one was a plumber and one did office admin

eta- also in laws- fil retired at 45, mil has never worked

But it never used to be like this.
Im not just talking about young people, older as well.
Many people on MN are saying how they are struggling to find employment after being made redundant.
But there is now a crisis in young people being able to find even their first job.
Or how many of these young people have managed to get a few hours, as that is all they have been offered in a pub or shop.
Whilst those few hours will help them mentally rather than being 24/7 being stuck in their bedroom and mentally deteriorating, what is the way forward for them.
Its certainly not enough to be able to move forward, to rent to buy, to live a life.
Then there are those young who can’t get a job for trying and end up on benefits , what sort of future have they got mapped out for them when their working life starts out like this.

They were late 40s I suppose. Jobs included bin collector and postman. Very normal jobs

I can't imagine people retiring so early these days!

(Unless very wealthy / massive inheritance / lottery win etc)

💐

Which isn't a consideration for young school leavers and recent graduates, either then or now.

But it never used to be like this
No things change, for the better and the worse. Some things are better for young people, ie. better understanding and acknowledgement of mental health and disability, better flexible arrangements etc...and some are worse, taking longer and having to work harder to get that first job.

People just aren’t resilient or adaptable enough and that’s what causes the issues for many.

I think much of the issue stems from the fact that people in their 60’s and 70’s have gone through life without having to experience anything too bad such as war, and have also seen steadily increasing standards of living over the decades. That is quite an unusual lifetime when you look back historically.

What we have now is a situation where the next generation will likely be in a worse situation than the previous one. That hasn’t really happened since WW2 so isn’t in most people’s frame of reference.

People need to consider current circumstances and work out how best to compete. Looking back and feeling hard done by achieves nothing.

Life is so starkly different in just a couple of generations. DHs grandad was a fireman- worked for 30 years and then retired. He's been claiming his generous work pension for almost as long as he worked, and his state pension since 65 and is in good health so likely to claim for much longer. This is completely unsustainable of course but compare that to DHs cousin whos a self employed tradesman and working 7 days a week paying huge taxes, v small private pension hes trying to pay into and struggling to buy even the smallest house in their cheap area.

We are moving abroad. We know things are hard everywhere but people are kidding themselves if they think the UK is doing a good job compared to most places.

There are people who curate bookshelves so big important people look clever and cultured on zoom call, probably people who would’ve been window dressers in the past.

Jobs change.

I don’t think that’s true. I’m 72 and have seen economic peaks and troughs throughout my life. It certainly hasn’t been a steady increase. So many things have coincided for this generation of young people - Brexit, Covid, automation and AI, qualification inflation - it all adds up to a perfect storm. I’m so glad not to be young now.

But surely if millions are on benefits there should be an abundance of jobs going ?

Not if there has been a reduction in jobs

There are jobs disappearing all the time. It’s what happens in a depressed economy.

Why do you say that? People unable to get a job are more likely to be on benefits.

Yeah and they can’t even leave thanks to Brexit

Yes they can and they are. Younger people are leaving.

No, because Labour is taxing and taxing so all the wealth creators have left the UK and nobody wants to invest. So where are the jobs going to come from?

It is not just jobs. My Home Counties commuter town has a very active NIMBY group opposing housing that would aid people under 40 remaining in the town. People in their thirties are not spring chickens and there is something very infantilising about boomers being able to block people in their 30s achieving markers of adulthood.

I agree. Some people look at the past with rose-tinted glasses, but there’s always been peaks and troughs.

I remember when unemployment hit three million for the first time (1982). Life was hard then.