Almost 90% of people made unemployed in the past year are under 35s

[user1471588124]

Shocking statistics from the ONS today showing 88% of jobs lost in the year from feb 2020--feb 2021 were jobs of people under 35, more than 60% in those under 25. Feels like a poweder keg of resentment will go off soon, the social impact of such a generational divide will be massive (especially as under 35s are largely not at risk from the virus).

www.politicshome.com/news/article/ons-employment-young-people-face-employment-crisis-as-88-of-job-losses-affect-under-35s

The stats say that 53% of the jobs lost to the age group were in hopsitality, which isn't surprising, but it's not clear if they were full time or part time jobs.

Looking at the annual decrease by age-band, 437,000 (63.1%) were under 25 years, 174,000 (25.2%) were aged 25 to 34 years and 109,000 (15.7%) were aged 35 to 49 years. Only 5,000 (0.7%) were aged 65 years and over.

They've missed an age-band there - what about those aged 49 - 64?

Just curious because my husband who's 60 lost his job due to the pandemic. Finding it difficult to get another due to being 'old'.

I'm 32 and I actually think the government has screwed over most age groups in various ways during this pandemic but absolutely agree that it is young people who have been treated worse than any other age group.

I was also musing on the fact that a lot of people my age were the ones worst affected by the 2008 recession, and had very little protection, no savings, were just starting out in life. I was lucky, I had an ok job then which I kept, but we were all affected by salaries never recovering, and nothing was ever done at all about the fact that it is becoming harder and harder to buy a home.

So now in the pandemic, we're still the ones more likely to be losing our jobs. Again I'm lucky, for now I've got a good job, although the pandemic has perhaps affected it's not long term future. Not because of viability, but government policy. But we will see what happens.

I have two primary aged children, I'm a single mum and somehow the government thought it was possible for parents to work full time and teach multiple children the full curriculum when schools were shut? Ive been sick of all the stupid memes, comic relief sketches and lighthearted jokes around this- partly the fact that people want to laugh at a situation that has pushed so many people to the edge when their mental health was already struggling, and partly that people, including schools, have put nowhere enough pressure on the gov to say how utterly ridiculous the situation is. No one is holding them to account on what they are going to do to help our children following this.

I don't care if I ever get the vaccine, I'd go back to normal life instantly if I could. We're the age group who have always been told we're incredibly low risk of the virus. But the effects the lockdowns have had on my already fragile mental health (following a traumatic separation from an abusive ex) have been catastrophic. We need to be able to live our lives, no one knows what it around the corner. I'm sickened by it all and what kind of future my own DC will have, there has been no balance in doing what is reasonable wrt the virus and protecting elderly people but also considering the impacts on young people.

I'll end by saying that I know a lot of older people DO recognise these things and feel very much for younger people. My own mum being one of them.

@jcyclops

The data comes from:

www.ons.gov.uk/employmentandlabourmarket/peopleinwork/employmentandemployeetypes/bulletins/uklabourmarket/march2021

68,000 more people were in payrolled employment in February 2021, when compared with January 2021; this is the third consecutive monthly increase.

Of the 693,000 decrease in payrolled employees since February 2020, 368,000 can be attributed to employees working in the accommodation and food service activities sector, 123,000 in the wholesale and retail trade sector, while only 1,000 can be attributed to employees working in the construction sector. This decrease is net of an increase of 43,000 employees working in public administration, and 132,000 employees in health and social work.

Looking at the annual decrease by age-band, 437,000 (63.1%) were under 25 years, 174,000 (25.2%) were aged 25 to 34 years and 109,000 (15.7%) were aged 35 to 49 years. Only 5,000 (0.7%) were aged 65 years and over. This decrease is net of an increase of 32,000 aged 50 to 64 years.

Those percentages don’t add up

Be interesting to know the stats of what percentage of the working population make up the age ranges or have I missed that? Sorry. Just scan read.

It’s interesting. My parents are late 60s and retired. They fully admit that aside of not seeing us and dad not playing golf, nothing has changed for them. They said financially they’ve raked it in because they haven’t been able to spend any money! So it’s certainly been a way of opening up huge inequalities

@pinkunicornwithacatonitsback

It’s interesting. My parents are late 60s and retired. They fully admit that aside of not seeing us and dad not playing golf, nothing has changed for them. They said financially they’ve raked it in because they haven’t been able to spend any money! So it’s certainly been a way of opening up huge inequalities

Yes agree, plus the issues of boredom/loneliness feel very different to overwork/stress/job insecurity so emotionally different groups have had different pandemics too.

Where was all the support for under 35s who were made redundant following the 2008 crash?

Redundancies happen, they’re part of life.

As pointed out above, this is the same bloody generation.

People born in the late 80s (graduating about the same time as the crash) have been utterly screwed twice.

Not remotely surprised. I’ve been angry from the start about how young people have been dismissed, demonised and basically shat on throughout the pandemic. I’d also include children, especially babies and toddlers whose existence has been largely ignored (see the #WhatAboutUs campaign that kicked off this week).

But no one cares. Every time I or other posters have tried to flag this up on here we’ve been shouted down as ‘ageist’, as though ageism can only ever work in one direction. Or the issue has been dismissed with a flippant ‘Life’s not fair’, as though this will make it all go away. And every time governments make even timid moves to deal with demographic issues (see May’s ‘dementia tax’) the older voting population refuses to countenance them.

None of this is happening in a vacuum. The fallout from lockdown comes on top of Brexit, which largely wasn’t voted for by the young, and the looming disaster of climate change. Generational injustice has been growing for years; Covid has just exacerbated and highlighted it. This generation of young people has proved to be amazingly docile and compliant, but even they have their limits, and I think they’re starting to get restive. With the adverse effects of Brexit still falling under the radar and the vast debt from Covid needing to be repaid, we are only really at the start of this.

The pensions triple lock, for a start, should have been done away with years ago. If we can’t afford to properly fund schools, child mental health and Early Years schemes, we can’t afford that either.

@Kokeshi123 and @TempsPerdu agree with you both completely.

I was fortunate in not being made redundant during the last recession, but everyone has suffered since with salaries not catching up. And this obviously has a bigger impact on people who are starting out in life. So yeah, born late 80s/early 90s and the way the pandemic has been handled has been another kick after the last recession.

Nothing has been done about issues around home ownership and affordability. Bringing back 5% deposits is ridiculous and only puts young people in a precarious position whilst keeping house prices high for the tories core group of voters to benefit from. House prices need a correction, it's ridiculous.

On here you get screamed at for being a granny killer if you so much dare as suggest that this can't continue. How this can continue to be trotted out now that the vast majority of elderly/vulnerable have been vaccinated I don't know. I hope younger people don't continue to be so docile! I wasn't anti-lockdown as a short term measure but this can't continue, there will be nothing left. The quality of life of everyone, mental health, both now and in the future was not balanced enough.

Off topic but I mentioned before that other ages have been screwed over- I really question the sense of making it impossible for people in their 90s not to be able to see their family during the pandemic. It seems an incredibly poor judgement of risk, surely the greater risk was the misery of the last years of a persons life being so lonely and unhappy? I think it's cruel what has happened in care homes. Sorry for the tangent but thought it should be mentioned too- I think young people have been treated abysmally but the elderly were screwed over in a different way.

@StrawberryLipstickStateOfMind

Completely agree about the situation with the very elderly isolated in care homes; this has always struck me as incredibly cruel and it does seem to be our very oldest and youngest who have suffered the most.

As ever, it’s the Baby Boomer generation that has broadly seen the most benefit from our response to the pandemic.

Truly is disgusting!
People under 35 as you say OP, are largely not at risk of dying or getting seriously ill from this virus. They have been well and truly screwed over.

I've said all along that it is the young who've been shafted by this.

Also women. How many of the unemployed are women?

Would just add OP that the relative lack of responses to your thread compared to some on here (notably the ‘When will I get my vaccine? and ‘When can I go on holiday?’ ones) goes to how few people actually care about this issue.

And yet,people wonder why there were riots in Bristol.

@TempsPerdu

Would just add OP that the relative lack of responses to your thread compared to some on here (notably the ‘When will I get my vaccine? and ‘When can I go on holiday?’ ones) goes to how few people actually care about this issue.

God so true.

Yep. My daughter and her boyfriend have moved in with us because they couldn't afford to live anymore

He's furloughed from bar job for 10 of last 12 months at I think 80% of wages

She got kicked out so her employer didn't have to pay furlough

They're 22, so hard for them (and me )

It’s outrageous, and at the same time, poor young people like my much younger 21 year old DSis, have not only lost their part time bar job but has been liable for nearly £500 per month for college accommodation that she is not allowed to stay in!

Would be nice if the older generations perhaps realised the huge inequality that already existed between the under 35s and the overs, and fucking did something about it.

It would be nice if the younger generations realised the huge inequality that already and has always existed against older workers and fucking did something about it!

I am fed up to the back teeth of this narrative on MumsNet that is about blaming older people for the pandemic and all its impacts. It is a narrative that is based on idiotic and highly prejudiced interpretation of "facts".

Here's some more facts from ONS - the over-50s are almost three times more likely to be out of employment for at least two years than other age groups
www.peoplemanagement.co.uk/news/articles/over-50s-three-times-more-likely-to-be-long-term-unemployed#gref

It's a bloody tragedy that so many people of all ages have lost their jobs due to this pandemic. It was a bloody tragedy that so many people of all ages had no jobs before the pandemic. Some of those people will, through no fault of their own, never work again.

Instead of all this age-bashing rubbish that keeps being churned out, in a race to the bottom about who is worst affected, why don't you place the blame where it belongs, which is fucking not with older people!

*It would be nice if the younger generations realised the huge inequality that already and has always existed against older workers and fucking did something about it!

I am fed up to the back teeth of this narrative on MumsNet that is about blaming older people for the pandemic and all its impacts. It is a narrative that is based on idiotic and highly prejudiced interpretation of "facts".*

On this thread, where are people blaming older people for the pandemic and all its impacts? Young people have lost their jobs on a far greater scale in this pandemic, or do you deny that? For a virus that they had very little chance of becoming seriously unwell with. Of course it's awful when anyone of any age loses their job, did anyone say otherwise?

As for huge inequality towards older workers, age is a protected characteristic and people should NOT be discriminated against for their age, be it young or old. It's not the over 50s that have a lesser minimum wage because of their age though is it.

Students are also pretty much the only major group who don’t yet have a firm date for resuming their usual activities - just a ‘review’ due to report back after Easter. Given exam season and term dates there’s likely to be little in-person teaching until the new academic year.

I am fed up to the back teeth of this narrative on MumsNet that is about blaming older people for the pandemic and all its impacts. It is a narrative that is based on idiotic and highly prejudiced interpretation of "facts".

I have not seen this, a number of threads have said young people have been disproportionately affected employment wise & then other posters start saying not all pensioners are rich. Not all pensioners are rich but that doesn't mean the young haven't been impacted. Another element for the younger generations is the wage stagnation from the 08 crisis.

It’s outrageous, and at the same time, poor young people like my much younger 21 year old DSis, have not only lost their part time bar job but has been liable for nearly £500 per month for college accommodation that she is not allowed to stay in!

I think it's absolutely outrageous how students have been treated.

But no one cares. Every time I or other posters have tried to flag this up on here we’ve been shouted down as ‘ageist’, as though ageism can only ever work in one direction. Or the issue has been dismissed with a flippant ‘Life’s not fair’, as though this will make it all go away. And every time governments make even timid moves to deal with demographic issues (see May’s ‘dementia tax’) the older voting population refuses to countenance them.

I completely agree despite being older & faring ok though this. However I have dc so of course I care.

But what percentage of the working population does each age group make up? If there are far more younger workers then I'd expect a higher portion to loose their jobs.