To think we need to start talking about the lack of jobs?

[Newmeagain]

This is prompted by quite a few threads I have read recently, from parents of young people looking for jobs or posters themselves struggling with finding a job.

I feel like a lot of responses are completely out of touch and people are not aware how hard it is right now. There are no “supermarket jobs” etc that you can just pick up.

I think this is having a particularly significant impact on school leavers and graduates looking for their first full time job, students wanting part time work and also anyone over 50 who suddenly finds themselves unemployed.

Yes I saw these looking for medical research jobs. Train an ai to take my own job?! How about no?
But i guess if you were desperate enough for a job you would.

Labour’s policies have hit the employment market too. AI will be used but someone needs to understand better how to work with it so we all just don’t end up unemployed. Well not all but a huge amount.

Those that are desperate enough for a job though probably aren’t the most competent so therefore you’ve got the blind leading the blind if I’m being generous. And AI just gets worse and worse fingers crossed it’ll just self implode.

Immigration fell dramatically in 2025 and emigration rose dramatically - Indian nationals were the largest group in this.

Immigration is not the root of everything.

Alan Milburn's report would be a better starting point if you wanted to look at the causes of un- and under- employment for young people.

I suspect the reasons for the lack of jobs for older people are complex but again, I'd love to see the actual data which pins this squarely on immigrants.

My hairdressers was actually saying recently it’s hard to find apprentices as no one applying

Or he takes the job works until 7pm and accepts that the last hour or so of work is basically to fund a taxi home until he can drive. Or finds another job later on with experience behind him.

I know graduate doctors, vets, teachers who have struggled to get work.

A friend refers to the Chairman complex, ie the steps up the ladder shouldn't apply to them! I think it's comparable with no young couple wanting to start married life with anything less than everything brand new, they then moan about the cost of living. Neither things apply to everyone obviously, and some are genuinely finding it hard, but it does seem to apply to a large number. How many graduates think that their degree, and all the debt they've built up, was worth it?

H was told to have a go with AI.

It’s a moron he said, plus the funding model means it won’t be cheaper, it’s a loss leader at the moment.

Give it a couple of years and the whole idea of AI will implode.

Machine learning, yes great brilliant an amazing tool. AI not so much.

I was that taxi. 6am run so he could do hotel breakfasts. Midnight pickup so he could clean the bar down after closing time. We lived rurally no buses to our village.

Most business owners have come to that conclusion after a two year I don’t even know what to call it, experiment seems fitting

Almost any jobs related to IT are not minimum wage. A previously flourishing IT sector which provided many jobs has been significantly reduced due to on-shoring, off-shoring. And people are now questioning why their children are struggling to get into decent careers.

For various reason, some of the jobs filled British born people don't want and for others we have newly qualified who can't get the jobs as they don't have the experience required for the jobs on offer they trained for - there is a gap between training and filling the role - this is particularly relevant atm in medicine - The expansion of medical school places has not been matched by an expansion in postgraduate training capacity, leading to a shortage of available senior posts

but also this is where uk doesn't process applications from British application over overseas application and that could be changed to reduce competition over job applications

ML fits in the overall umbrella of AI

Sharing from the perspective of someone who interviews both apprentices and grads here at a top rated financial services firm - I can agree there are fewer jobs for young people starting out such as retail HOWEVER the interview skills of young people for this years cohort (interviewed in 2025) were noticeably poorer than the year before, and the same could be said the year before that.

I do not know where it went wrong, but there seems to be a complete lack of willingness from junior candidates to show genuine (or at least faked genuine) interest in interviews. It was quite evident for over 50% of interviews I either held or sat in on that candidates had not even looked at the website for the area of business they were applying for, let alone done any deep research on the firm.

Those who flew through without issues had done things as far as sifting through our annual reports and asking questions, reading news articles from the firm and properly researching projects we had been on.

Supermarket jobs etc are also affected by people retiring later or having to work in retirement. Lots of staff in our local re much older than used tobe years ago. The positions which would normally be free for entry level young people are now often part timer topping up pension because they won't make do otherwise. Plus 60s are now fitter than before so some work simply to keep active. My mum just retired last year and really wanted part time job. She is still fit, active and if the company wasn't making redundancies, she would be in still. She is 62 (not in uk).

I've noticed a general trend to employ people like oneself. It is likely part of in group identity, we all do it. So with things like McDonalds which are franchises, if the owner is Indian (and they are more likely to be non-white, motivated for a better life immigrant), they might employ a Manager who is Indian who will employ staff who are Indian.

You also see it often in teams or industries, woman manager, more likely to have female employees. It also may make a workplace or industry more appealing to work in for the employee. Think of investment banking/engineering and how you have a layer of discomfort as a woman. Or HR/primary school teacher for a man.

Ny DS got a job during covid at the McDonald's at 16. He worked there through 2 years of college and in uni holidays He also had a job in uni town, first at a nightclub then duty manager at a hotel.

Since graduating he's done another stint at the McDonald's while job hunting and some sports coaching / holiday kids club work Now has a job in a school . He's 22. I don't know any of his friends who are unemployed

Edited as Wrong thread

At Christmas I went to my local M&S for mince pies. I couldn't find them, and asked someone stacking shelves where they were - he didn't know but suggested the chilled meat aisle!

I don't know where he was from, or how he was recruited, but I was pretty frustrated that while my DD couldn't get a job of any description, M&S food had employed someone with poor English who didn't know what a bloody mince pie was.

This is a good point. I’m in my later 50s and no way I’m retiring any time soon. All our local businesses and shops have older staff and where I work those that hit retirement age go part time.
I also run a big team and a lot of the younger staff don’t want to work as hard.
My teens have qualified as cricket scorers and referees (& help at their clubs) and earn money doing that. If they wanted a regular job at least they’d have proof of skills acquired already.

99% of the new hires at Amazon are Indian. Very difficult for local people to get in.

I am a manager of a retail store.
I am in Scotland, I was looking for a team leader, had the application open for just over 5 weeks. No experience necessary but you'd be working with money so need to be able to do basic math.
Only had 3 people apply. 1 of those didn't show up to the interview.
My team is made up of 18-20 year olds, who are doing 25-30 hours which is too much for them but I simply cannot get anymore staff
So it must really depend on where you are in the country

Yup. My city has gone from four town-centre department stores to one. When you go in that one, there are few customers and even fewer staff.

I went in a department store in a different city recently, to kill time before a train. It was actually really unpleasant - no customers, hardly any staff, random things like a bike concession on the ground floor, escalators cordoned off as they weren't working. I waited for a lift, then decided I couldn't be bothered and walked out. Felt like the end of days.

Which part of the Amazon business are you referring to? Amazon employ over 70,000 in the UK. If you mean the warehouse staff - most live locally.