Cost of living. Teens with no jobs

[monkeysox]

The whole COL crisis is exacerbated by huge supermarket chains (one example) who are making huge profits. They don't employ as many young people (automation) so the cost of the kid's needs falls on the parents who have huge bills themselves.
I always had a Saturday or evening job.
Businesses aren't hiring nearly as much as 30 years ago.
Aibu?

It isn't, it's true. First they introduced rows of 20 staffed tills, then they kept two-thirds of those tills unstaffed or closed, then they started with the digital creep.

An estimated 75,000 mainly female cashier jobs have disappeared, taking valuable social interactions and community spirit with them.

As for the multiskilling of retail workers, are you having a laugh? Many of them can't even speak in complete sentences.

I work in a supermarket and we have a lot of floor staff that are teens but a lot of the other shops in our shopping centre don’t really have pt staff, it’s cheaper for them to close earlier and have their ft staff in less hours.

Sadly so many shops are closing down now because supermarkets are the only ones who can afford to stay open (and yes o agree with you, they are money making machines really) with everyone buying online now. Another two in our shopping centre in the last three weeks.Look at the threads on here, where can I buy x or y and someone posts a link instead of saying try your town centre.

All business are money making machines. When they cease to make money they shut.

Level1469

As for the multiskilling of retail workers, are you having a laugh? Many of them can't even speak in complete sentences.

And yet you sound so easy to work with with your lovely personality that must really add to a great working atmosphere wherever you are.

There is an aging population. Aged care and nurses will always be needed. There’s an opportunity for retaining and it would be a job for life.

everyone buying online now

My friend’s 18 year old student works as an Evri delivery driver…

Sadly a very badly paid one, and one women often carry huge mental tolls from when they are told to squeeze all care into a 15min visit and leave vulnerable people alone. You have to improve these sectors if you want people to work in them, but again, then they don't make as much money for the billionaires at the top...

Not necessarily. They are getting the jobs because hirers of the same ethnicity are exploiting the rule of "if you can't find someone in the UK who can do this, you are allowed to sponsor a foreigner on a work visa". So the boss, after rejecting all local candidates, says "Boo hoo, I can't find anyone ... so I'll bring in my cousin's mate from Bangalore".
It's not just the UK. This has been happening wholesale in Silicon Valley for years now. Pretty please, do your basic research before you make these assertions on the delusional assumption that all Mumsnetters are as disingenuous as you are.

A very badly paid job for life if you mean carers. Newly graduating nurses on the other hand are finding it impossible to find work whilst NHS trusts are recruiting from abroad.

Yep it is not an even playing field as it is cheaper to employ Indian staff as a result of the deal that Labour did last year.

Also many shops as has been mentioned on here Tesco and Primark examples where the management are Indian and all staff seem to be Indian bar none.

Not really fair is it, they favour their own it is very obvious..

Same with midwives - we keep seeing all of these reports about how unsafe giving birth in UK is and have needed more midwives since Cameron, yet we have huge amounts of unemployed MW because the care trusts won't spend £ on hiring them. So they all go freshly trained to live in Australia, just like the Drs.

I agree with you completely.

My teen is looking for an apprenticeship at the moment and I'm even helping her apply for jobs.

So far she's been rejected for just about every one - if they have bothered to reply.

She's just passed all her exams as well so it's disheartening.

There are no Saturday jobs to be had to get experience either so she volunteers elsewhere during the week with a kids group after school.

Looks like she will be doing another year in education just to do something next year (applied as a back up plan).

Minimum wage laws apply across the UK - there are not any exceptions.

I don’t know where you have received your information about trade deals signed by Labour causing this existing problem as the one agreed by them hasn’t come into force yet:

https://www.gov.uk/government/news/the-countdown-begins-uk-india-fta-enters-into-force-on-july-15th

I suspect your knowledge is heresay and misinformation spread on social media!

A lot of teenagers actually work to help the house hold.

Whilst it was a strange concept to me (went to school in scotland) a lot of my clever classmates had to opt out of staying on until 5th and 6th year as their parents couldn't afford to keep them in education.

They did have some sort of grant on offer but it wasn't enough to match the income of full time worker.

I also did have to start working whilst at school and worked for a big supermarket. That experience has helped a lot in life I must say.

I had to clothe and buy any extras myself though so whilst I didn't really contribute with bills (left home at 17 as I started school at 4 so completed 6th year by 17) I still bought my own shoes and clothes and paid my own way for extras - which u guess also saved my parents money as they still had my siblings to look after.

I wouldn't agree that working teens are all doing it for pocket money

Yes this is what is exactly what is happening across the piece from shops to professional roles. It is very obvious and needs addressing as so many people cannot get work at all in the UK from teens to older people like me. It is a nightmare. Huge amount of jobs are going to people from abroad and we are pushed out that needs sorting. Same in the NHS it is very widespread.

And the last sentence is why sixth-formers can no longer get work. Back in the day, you would be recruited by Iceland to work every Saturday 9-6. That's it.

But now flexibility to be available to cover a wide variety of (changing?) shifts is key to recruitment decisions. And those at school/college can't give that flexibility. It's rare to see a "8 hour Saturday shift" advertised anywhere now.

Round here it’s older people who can’t/don’t want to do their long term career any more, but can’t afford to retire.

There’s a tourist place that was basically like a rite of passage for teens here. They all had a stint working there when at school or college.

It’s now primarily staffed by people over 60. They don’t need changing timetables worked around, they don’t have limited hours, and they don’t learn for a couple of years and then disappear off to uni.

There is a deal where they don't pay NI it starts next month. Not hearsay at all.

Aside from that they are recruiting their own as is evident in so many shops and in IT, NHS and the rest.

There is a new store opening near me and lots of youngsters trying to get jobs and the manager is Indian she is posting on Facebook about the new store. She put up a few pics of staff filling the shelves and getting ready for opening and surprise surprise all indian staff.

That is not fair no one is getting a look in, it is discrimination.

Did young people have Saturday jobs 30 years ago ? Some but not on the scale they should have.
Saturday jobs started to die out in the 1980’s. Not the jobs tbh but parents who were well off enough didn’t want to be seen unable to support their children financially. It was a form of snobbery. You only had a Saturday job if your parents were not well off enough. Such were the 1980’s.
In some parts of Britain of course the parents didn’t have a job at all.

The benefit of them as a brilliant introduction to work died out. But they are sorely needed.
That, and a mentality of employers who expect someone who is in a first job to be all singing and all dancing from the moment they start anything. Not expecting them to have to learn a bit. Put them on easy things to gain confidence. Nope. Bum on seat, fully operational equal to someone very experienced. Ignorant is what I call it.

Add in bizarre modern recruitment methods which nobody back in my day ever did I can understand why so many young people are not in work.

Two teen DGC, one at uni who has had cafe and then pub work since 16. The other, 6th former, works a few hours on a Saturday. They don’t need to work, but i’m glad they do. They’ll pick up skills to enhance whatever academic qualifications they get, and they’re learning the value of money!

You need certain qualities to work in care. Being desperate for money is not one of them, is not fair on the vulnerable people being looked after.

Newly qualified nurses are struggling to find work.

Teenagers want to work. And sometimes the job IS the respite.

I worked in a record store during Years 11 and 12 (HSC in Australia). Amid the madness of sitting mutely all day at school and being berated by cantankerous parents at home, my job was the one thing that kept me sane. I raced to it, thrived in it, wept when eventually I had to leave it for my "true vocation" that I'd trained for.

I learned so much from working out how to give good customer service. That retail job, and the experience of chatting to people about music, has served me every single day of my career. I'd say of every job I have ever had, no matter how awful, it taught me something I can still use. That is what today's teenagers can see, and that is why they want to get out there and find a job.

Agree with this.
I had a Saturday job in the 80s, me and my mum walked around the town and asked in every shop did they need someone that was how it was done in those days.

I started my first job at 14 for pocket money worked in bakery, then dishwashing in a restaurant, then went to a supermarket on the tills all while at school and college.

Prior to that I did fruit picking and tattie picking in the holidays from a very young age, hard work but great memories and making some money to help buy school uniform and school shoes and a bit of pocket money for treats. This wouldn't be allowed now with H&S and such; get picked up 6 am in the back of a van and off the they berry fields for the day. it was good times.

None of that exists now and the convoluted recruitment process for any job makes it tough, every aspect of your life and your inside leg measurements on top.

As you say times are changing and if a 14 year old’s interests are politics, then getting in early, being a known face around political, council adults won’t hurt will it?

As times are changing there might be an increasing need for who you know, not what hobbies you did. And some teen’s hobbies will be seeing how campaigns are run, talking about local issues etc etc.

Our youngster has been part of school parliament, meeting local MPs and councillors, addressing issues relating to high school pupils in the area, he really enjoys it, is a known face and clearly has something about the way he carries himself because of return invitations and feedback. He is also a normal teenager year 10, plays two team sports, has predicted A grades across the board, hangs out with friends in real life and online, has a part time job and regular volunteering. It’s not an either/or thing they can do a lot if they put their mind to it. They have hours to fill they really do.

So is his education, networking, experience or hobbies going to be what helps, if it does, for him. Who knows? Guessing, the fact he can email adults who have decent positions is likely to be more helpful than his basketball team, but no where near as much fun!

He is truly enjoying his childhood and not thinking about future work, he just knows not to turn down any opportunities that might be fun, beneficial, interesting. Teens are like sponges, their brains are young and can take on a lot.

I do think there is something to this.

There are a lot of benefits to teens having jobs, but they don't always provide the value of a full wage and of course in general they also don't have full living expenses.

So to work doing a kind of low value job on a somewhat reduced wage might encourage employers to hire more teens.

On the other hand, it could easily feel unfair where they are doing the same job as well or better. My niece worked as a waitress in a fairly high end place as a teen. She started bussing at 16 - which I could see as a "teen" job with a lower wage, but by 17 was waiting tables and was in fact one of the more effective waitresses. So why would she get less than other waitresses doing the exact same, rather stressful and difficult, job?

But I do think there could be a way to build some legislation that would encourage teen hires.