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.

A county with 1
4 billion people, exactly. How can anyone compete with that? Would you draw a line anywhere at how many of that 1.
4 Billiion people can work in the UK?

Its a nightmare in our area. One Sainsburys Xmas temp job had 90 applicants. There is hardly anything available and when something does come up the competition is crazy as half the local college students apply for the same job. We are in a thriving town too. Its so disheartening for rhe young people looking for their first job.

And also it's not all skilled staff @GetAbsOrDieTrying There are posts after posts saying that their local garage and shop have all Indian staff.

This was Labour! The Tories started negotiating a trade deal, but nothing was signed by the time they were booted out. They state they refused this same deal when proposed, though who knows. Either way, this fuckup is all on Labour. They agreed it, they signed it off, and they announced it with a great big fucking smile in 2025 - after they'd increased NI contributions.

One of the significant issues is that overqualified people assume they should be attractive to employers who don't need their qualifications, as you state here. Why should they be. A degree or whatever, is not important to certain jobs and having one doesn't make you more attractive to employ. In fact it is is probably going to be more difficult.
We need to move away from ' I have a degree but can't get even get a job at, wherever' you can't get a job because your skill base is not what they want. Degrees, first class degrees, intern at a top 4 accountants, work experience in Berlin, are actually not what every employer looks for. Maybe compete in your chosen field of law, or computing science, or whatever, instead of trying to compete in a field you are not suitable for.
Non degree people don't say 'it's terrible, I can't even get a job as a solicitor' do they. They get on with the jobs they are suitable for and do them well

Want to say something too about remote working - whilst I say this is great for many mums in particular , it actually puts people like my son who are living in London at a disadvantage, as people now applying from anywhere with equally good experience and happy at the bottom of the pay scale , whereas he wants at least middle of the scale , he also doesn’t want to move away as loves London and doesn’t want a remote job ( works in infrastructure Tech) luckily he is in work but it’s proving hard to move up

Right and Rachel Reeves has offered incentives for companies to take on Indian workers in these roles. Do you not thing she should be trying to get British people into those jobs? Encourage apprenticeships, offer free uni for certain skillsets? Instead we just import and have a huge unemployment rate. Plus there are loads of Indian shop workers. I wonder how they get a visa for unskilled work. Nothing against Indians, they are very nice people, many attend my church and go to my kids schools. However, it is common sense when we have high unemployment to want to keep British people employed rather than import workers.

I had all sorts of jobs when I was at 6th form college and university in the early to mid 1990s.

Even though there was a recession on for part of that time it was easy to get a job.

One observation though, when I was doing these part time jobs most of the other people were doing them were students or young adults doing them as hopefully a stepping stone to something else.

Now people are working in a coffee shop or McDonald's not as a stepping stone job, but as a full time position which they want to occupy for years. Hence when someone applies and it is known it won't be their main focus there isn't much interest.

What’s your link for this and sources? As I think you may be presenting half a story -

https://www.express.co.uk/finance/personalfinance/2215487/rachel-reeves-pays-uk-firms-employ-workers-but-brits-cant-apply

https://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/markets/article-14289137/Currys-boss-blames-Labours-tax-jobs-announces-plans-hire-workers-India.html

Universities and the last Labour Government sold the aspiring middle class a pup. They charge high fees, leach public money, operate an unaccountable self sustaining monopoly, that basically sells a fantasy that they provide access to employment and a secure future of economic security. The reality is very different.
As we see higher education institutions go bankrupt we shouldn't be bailing them out. The irony of those offering you a 3 year course in Economics being insolvent.

What area of recruitment do you work in.

https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/uk-payrolled-employments-by-nationality-region-industry-age-and-sex-from-july-2014-to-december-2024/uk-payrolled-employments-by-nationality-region-industry-age-and-sex-from-july-2014-to-december-2024

I have been out of work since August last year. Was told by a recruiter that in his 30 years of work that he’s never seen the market this bad.

I have applied hundreds of jobs. It’s absolutely brutal.

Who do you think works in supermarkets then? The problem is young people dont want to work, back in the day you had a job at 13 id had about 8 jobs by the time i was 18 and looking for a job, too many young people cant get a job even with a degree as theyve never had a job or done any voluntery work , yes its hard to get a job but people dont want to work

Exactly. If they'd done something sensible they'd be walking into £50k jobs easily. In my industry new grads are on 45-55k with no experience, and the jobs are readily available.

*Between December 2023 and December 2024, total payrolled employments in the UK increased by 0.2%, from 32.1 million to 32.2 million. Employments of:

• UK nationals decreased by 241,000 (1%)
• EU nationals decreased by 80,200 (3%)
• non-EU nationals increased by 400,300 (11%)*

'Wow' indeed.

What industry? I'm sure all the posters with young graduates would like to know.

Fuck me can this government get any worse.

There are some god awful responses on here. Real know it all’s putting the blame on young people because they want a live-able wage or they did a ‘stupid’ degree. Truly astounding

My work was recruiting, 50% didn’t reply to interview requests, then out of the ones that did, 50% didn’t actually turn up! Several that turned up arrived in jeans and trainers

Also notice this in London. Restaurant staff and bar staff, in many cases all of them are Indian. A real marked increase.

Aircraft maintenance

Makes me sick. The people at the top fully taking advantage of the cheap labour and making it impossible for graduates.

The blame needs to be on the greedy billionaires who want the most output for the least money possible. It’s only getting worse

We really would. We await...