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?

We live in South West Scotland. Both my daughters had part time jobs from 14 and all of their friends and our family members have had them..

My eldest worked in a café, moved onto McDonald's at 16, then TK MAXX, then a care home before going to uni. She now does bank shifts for the NHS but is due to qualify and has a job lined up to go into. Second daughter worked in a cafe and is now in a hairdressers around her hairdressing college course.

Interesting, our local m and s, is very over staffed with young people, they hang about chatting and looking at phones whilst the shelves have out of date items which we often point out to them...they are never rushed in this store, its all very casual and easy going ! Next door is the Aldi...you can see the staff working very fast and hard !!

Young people have always been unprepared for their first job. They’ll learn on the job like the rest of us always did - assuming they can get one.

Anyone really. There is a first time for everything, and no one is truly prepared.

There are many other new barriers to employing young people alongside minimum wage and NI. I wouldn't dare employ someone on a casual freelance basis for the sorts of jobs I did a teen - tutoring, gardening, cleaning, deliveries etc who was not insured and it is expensive and difficult to get public liability insurance if you are under 18.

I also got burnt by employing a daft teenager who walked out behind a reversing van (while chatting on their phone). They didn't know what the beeping banksman noise meant. They got a minor arm injury and successfully sued for damages.

30 years ago I (a) wouldn't have had a phone to distract me, (b) would have been a bit more streetwise and (c) wouldn't have thought of making a claim against my employer for a minor injury.

Now I am off on a rant! Don't get me started on the person working in A&E who must have been earning money on the side to pass on patient contact details to no-win-no-fee lawyers!

Students can't find jobs either. I wonder who's doing the jobs the students used to do/ or could be doing?

Older people trying to earn money to stay alive.

Cripes. That’s worrying - can I ask where in the UK you are?

Good shout. Anyone else?

The young didn’t want that as they said it was unfair! I think apprenticeship wages used to cover this stuff but then they have to pay for training now rather than just doing it themselves

But the jobs should only go to people outside the UK if there is no chance of employing someone who is British!
I heard/read that hundreds of takeaway shops are being allowed to bring in their own staff from India/Pakistan. Why??? Are the government really telling us that it’s impossible for takeaways to employ local people?? It’s utter madness!
Doctors and nurses, NHS jobs - all advertised abroad. We should be prioritising Peoplewho are here and trained!
We don’t need any more workers. None. We have more Nigerian doctors here than Nigeria has, it’s utter insanity.

My own daughter sent out hundreds of applications for jobs. She finally got a job 3 weeks ago. Two years it took her. Two bloody years.
The stupid NI increase, the Angela Rayner employee rights have all made employers incredibly wary of employing young people. It’s devastating for the economy and young people - some of whom, if this carries on, will never work. Who would employ a 25year old who has never had a job?

Some of the youngsters would be making money as uber delivery drivers if all the millions of positions weren't taken by those who must not be named

I read a book by an undercover reporter who worked for Uber (he also did a stint in an Amazon warehouse, a call centre, and as a carer). Shit conditions and pay, regardless of where you came from.

My 16 yr old daughter has initiative, is bright and motivated and certainly doesn't get drunk in the park! She's applied for a dozen jobs with no success :(

They seem to make a living somehow. Very expensive to live in the city I'm in, yet loads of uber drivers seemingly from the same part of the world. A youngster living with mum and dad would get paid, rather than relying on benefits.

I live in an area with grammar schools. Typically this demographic would be the students encouraged to take the traditional sixth form/ university/ medicine or law route.
So many of these students are now applying for post 16 apprenticeships rather than sixth form , meaning the academic standard for applicants to apprenticeships locally is really high, particularly for nhs roles. Understandable, as parents are aware that even supporting teens through sixth form is extremely expensive with rising transport costs etc, especially if it’s harder to find a part time job to supplement .But it does make everything even more competitive.

DS 18 and DD 20 (both still at Uni) have p/t jobs here West London for the summer. Both working in hospitality (pubs/bars restaurants) and both got their jobs by pounding the streets with CVs and a bit of coaching from me (Look people in the eyes, shake hands, smile etc).

Neither of them have managed to get jobs this past year in their respective Uni cities though - Manchester and Nottingham. DD had a job first year of Uni but hasn't been able to find anything since. DS really struggling to find work in Notts.

It's really REALLY hard

Seriously? The cost of the mower, trimmer, car transport etc plus insurance, petrol. And they are teenagers.

Personally, I would use someone who was already well established with good reviews etc.

When in my early teens I made craft stuff which I sold to neighbours. At 14 I got a job in the local chip shop. 5 minutes walk from home and a free fish and ship supper after every shift. Of course it was cash in hand. Even in the mid 80s when I went to uni as a mature student it was easy to pick up part time work. Call centers, market research, chat lines, sales and canvassing - you really could finish a job and have another within a week. All my student friends had part time jobs. As postgrads we did tutoring for the uni or taught evening class in FE colleges. And being a student I again paid no tax. Whoopee!

All these nice little jobs have gone now. There are many reasons but sour faced Rachel From Accounts scored an own goal with the jobs tax and not raising the personal allowance and tax thresholds.

Tesco’s net profit margin is roughly 2.42%. I don’t know how it’s become such a widespread belief that supermarkets make huge profits, but it’s obviously not true.

My DDs are early twenties now both have consistently had part time jobs from 16 to completing uni. Jobs were-
mcdonalds server
soft play worker
waitress in local restaurant
bar staff at revolution
waitress at local cafe
barista at Costa

youre right to make the observations and you’re right that the supermarkets make huge profits and don’t give enough back to society imo. I think they have huge amounts of power and we don’t hold them to account enough.. not just about the employment stats but also they affect everyone’s health, food production etc. Did you know that to get the same nutrients as you would have from one apple in 1950, today you’d have to eat 10?
this is because the supermarkets sell such little choice / so few varieties of fruit / veg that now farmers don’t bother growing most varieties and the ones we do grow / sell to supermarkets are quick growing. For the first time in human history, the whole world is eating the same food and varieties (a lot of soy) and this is not good.
Read Ultra Processed Peopke book.

anyway I digress!!
your kids live in today’s world - they have to find a way to thrive in it. Ok they can’t work as easily on the checkout - they need to look elsewhere!

I've no idea but kids who have Saturday and holiday jobs are usually supported by parents, ie their needs are met, they don't pay money for their keep, part time earnings are for personal spending.

There are jobs available in warehouses and hospitality.

I am absolutely certain that the supermarkets ensure they have enormous costs / engineered accounting strategies so they ‘only have’ profits of 2.4%.

This is well within their interests for financial reasons; tax being the most obvious; but also to whip up positive public opinion, lobby the government to keep their suppliers prices down as much as possible (dire for all of us health wise) , and to make the most of any government subsidies they might get.
Better for Tesco to pay as little as they can for their products and let the government pay the health crisis bill for the public sort of thing.
There are lots more things going on within the food supply and manufacturing chain that are very relevant to all of us plus the accounting tactics available to big business means it’s easy to have tiny ‘profits’ - that’s not the full story at all.