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.

It's not just school leavers. I'm in the tech-sector (AI related) and they're laying off thousands of people every week. In the last 2 years I've lost my job twice and in the last 6 months I've had 5 different managers. One time when I lost my job it took me 6 months to find a new one even though I'm highly experienced. I'm a single mum and I used to class myself as lucky as I'm well paid, but now I feel like I need constantly exhausted and burnt out from all the changes and worrying about losing my job again. I don't enjoy it but I badly need the work to support my child.

My dad worked in the tech sector and worked for the same company for 20 years - that's unheard of now as it's so volatile.

Seeing the impact of AI on jobs first hand makes me think things will be unrecognisable in much less time than people think - probably much less jobs all round within 2 years. Organisations only care about profit and they're happy to replace as many workers as possible. Problem is where is the money going to come to pay for things? People like builders, beauticians and PTs think they're safe but if tertiary workers are replaced with AI there won't be money for their services either.

Personally I think, forget immigrants and all the distractions of nationalist politics - we have a much bigger and more pertinent problem knocking right on our door and governments need to act fast to stop an economic implosion.

I think the cost of living crisis is having an impact... A lot of zero hours
/Weekend jobs are being done as a second job by people in their 20s/30s.

I know so many people in that age group with a main full-time job and a part time job on the side.

This is leaving less for teens/ those starting out. I

Of course, but the NI and minimum wage issues haven't helped.

YANBU but I would definitely say that these online things, Indeed etc. are completely useless as is LinkedIn. The direct route is the only way. Not that I’m saying that’s easy. If you’ve never considered it before do consider care work as it’s a way into other jobs.

I wonder if there are any figures which show how many call centre/admin/IT roles which used to be performed in UK have now been outsourced to India or other countries

Totally agree. My 17 year old & her friends are really struggling to find jobs locally, I'm hoping it might improve for her when she's over 18, but who knows. There's majority self service checkouts at all our local supermarkets, few companies need anyone for data entry or admin, due to utilising AI instead, and any weekend job that do come up seem to get hundreds of applicants. I've never known anything like it.

Yes for up to 5 years i believe they just need to use and employment agency to say they are paying it in India.

i don’t think its some grand conspiracy its very much just consequences of brexit
and an experienced educated group who have English as a first language. Why wouldn’t they get jobs if they don’t need training and got a recco from a friend.

wages were rising post Covid and Boris wanted to bring them down so he signed an immigration deal.

My experience is obviously only anecdotal, but I know hundreds of teens (literally - I teach in a secondary school) and they're not struggling for jobs.

The two of my three DC who are old enough for PT hobs both secured one age 16. DS works in Greggs part time whilst he does his Software Engineering degree and DD works part-time in a pharmacy through her last year of school.

Our S6s all seem to work in McDonalds, Morrisons, retail, various hospitality and tourism jobs etc. It sometimes takes a while but they all get a job eventually.

You are absolutely wrong. I've spoken to two Indian men recently. One was a labourer and the other was doing administration.
We are being flooded but the government is hoping people concentrate on the boat crossings.
My town in Shropshire is being absolutely destroyed by over crowding.

I’m not in the UK, but I believe it is likely the same thing. Basically, they are open to abuse from employers. They don’t understand worker protections, their rights, and are frightened for their visa’s. Unfortunately, that’s really attractive to low pay service industries.

Actually, not even low pay service. DH is a qualified technical professional, and in a previous large corp company they replaced all staff in his department with people on visa’s claiming skills shortage/can’t get employees. Completely false, there are lots of qualified local people who would happily take the jobs. Turns out the replacements (as they actively worked to push the existing staff out the door) were being paid just over half of what DH and his peers were being paid. They were also told not to claim for any overtime because ‘you wouldn’t want to put your working visa at risk’. So, much cheaper to employ, don’t have any sense of workers rights, open to abuse, and think they are getting a great deal and are very grateful. DH was the ‘last man standing’ in that department, who was not on a working visa. Went for constructive dismissal re the bullying to get him to leave, won, was replaced with someone on a working visa at half the price.

I just googled and you're right, wtf?! How is this not more widely known? If I'm reading it correctly, firms can just bring over Indian workers and not pay any national insurance in Britain for them for up to 5 years, as they'll pay Indian tax instead. Which is a lot lower. They will of course still be eligible to use NHS etc though.

Wow!!

I’m in the south west and have noticed this too - not so much fast food places but in local convenience shops and garages. My friend works in a convenience store in her town, she’s been there years. When she first took the job, it was run by English people. Then Indian people bought the shop and basically got rid of all of the existing staff, apart from my friend. Working conditions went downhill, which is why I think most staff left, eg staff were left with no say over the hours worked and were expected to work 12+ hour shifts, work alone (the shop is in a very dodgy neighborhood and has had its share of nutters in there trying to rob it and/or threaten staff). So through my friend I know that the same extended family that now own that shop, have built and opened in the last few years some brand new glitzy looking fuel stations in the area, all run by Indians, and no white employees at all. And also taken over other existing garages (including the one in my local town). My local one opened a Greggs a few years back, attached to the garage. That was big news for my little town, and it seemed like a great place for youngsters to get PT work. It’s now just Indian people working there. I think the issue is not so much that they won’t employ white people, but more that they are here to work as much as possible and that’s not what the average teenager wants or is able to do.

Indian people usually have very good work ethic. If you mean those on visas, then they would not be eligible for any public funds so they have to work so will pick up any available job.

This deal was signed in 2025, by Labour. And obviously nothing at all to do with Brexit!

I think the issue is not so much that they won’t employ white people, but more that they are here to work as much as possible and that’s not what the average teenager wants or is able to do.
They employ only other Indian people. So this is absolutely an issue.

And just to add to that, I know Asian people coming to England and running convenience stores and garages isn’t exactly a new thing, but here in Somerset it’s gone from being something you’d come across every now and again, to pretty much all of the garages and convenience stores. Those are the kinds of jobs that were once fairly easy for young people to get, but now they’re not.

Also I’d suggest that if it is being seen in fast food places too, that it is Indians buying the franchise and then just giving the jobs to other people they know. Actually I do know of one KFC locally where it’s just Indians working there, now I think of it.

I was listening to the radio last week and they were interviewing a big recruiter agency. I forget which one. they said they 5 years ago there were 180,000 grad jobs. This year there were 50,000. So yes it’s extremely scary

all these students with huge dept and no job at the end of it.

id advocate for a extreme wealth tax to be implemented asap

and its not just the uk. The us has seen a decline in grad jobs too

Have you gone to an NHS hospital?! Full of Indians! You do realise with a country like India which has more than one billion in population and churns out qualified people with a strong work ethic some are bound to end up here! They come to study and then stay on to work, or are brought here by UK companies who want to bring skilled talent in. A lot of the nursing staff also comes from India. Maybe educate yourself and don’t be racist.

It's not racist to want your own country to preserve jobs for uk nationals during a jobs crisis. And not waive employers NI so it incentives businesses to employ Indians over UK staff.

It seems really really variable. We’re in a small town (7k population) in the midlands. There are two supermarkets and a small industrial estate. Ds (now 19) got his first job at 16, in a building and plumbing supplies place - a mix of customer facing and shifting stock. Then he moved at 17 to one of the supermarkets and has been there ever since (full time in uni holidays). They have a steady stream of students working there, alongside lots of young people working full time. Ambitious youngsters get promoted to shift runner/shift manager and then are moved to a big store to train as a store manager - another friend has left this week for a promotion.

Dd (now 22) got a zero hours picking/packing job in a warehouse for uni holidays, when she was 18 and it’s been very useful. It was harder for her to get a job in her uni city - she put in loads of applications- but she eventually got a caring job, visiting clients in their homes. When she lost her driving licence she had to give it up, but it didn’t take long to get a job at Nando’s via a friend. She’s just graduated and was looking for jobs in mental health. She applied for lots and had three offers. Her friends seem to have got jobs too.

So our experience has been different from the general narrative and I’m not sure why really? I assume it’s partly area dependant. Dd is also very tenacious and a bit obsessive about applying for jobs!

This is a genuine issue.

Unfortunately the government have made it worse by increasing the cost to employers of employing people. This is economic madness... But like a lot of madness not easily reversed.

That is not the whole answer though. We need to make the UK a country where people actually want to invest and start and grow businesses. Anti business policies sound good to politicians and the electorate but they are mistaken.

The only way to get more jobs and higher income is through business growth and policies that make international investors want to invest here.

If this was seriously a top priority for Labour then the position would be better. Not perfect because there are structural issues at work too. But better.

Unemployment isn’t that high by historical standards. I think people just have the perception that it’s high because social media makes you more aware of others looking for work. Less than 20 years ago, unemployment rates were higher for those of us who graduated into the aftermath of the financial crash.

I was waiting for the first racist tag.
No one is being racist. We are stating facts about general jobs for working class people without degrees not being available.
Instead of coming here and using racist card rubbish read people's comments.

yes, people really fell for the ‘immigration’ lies to get Brexit over the line, whilst all the time it was the tories themselves who were drawing up the deal with India. Just wait until reform get in, it will be even worse.