FOUR IN TEN FEEL THEY ARE NOT PART OF SOCIETY
New statistics provide a startling glimpse inside the minds of the hundreds of thousands of young people who are currently out of work in the UK, including graduates.
Fresh figures from the online mentoring service FutureYou show that over three quarters of the nation’s unemployed young people (aged 18-24) agreed with the statement “My life is being wasted.” One in four admitted they are relying on state benefits as their main source of income. One in five believes they are unlikely to ever get a job or career in the future – and seven in 10 say their potential is being thrown away. Four in ten feel they are not part of society.
The report also reveals that the average NEET (that horrible term for anybody not in employment, education or training) spends eight months unsuccessfully searching for a job or training – and over a quarter say the support and advice available (such as local job centres and careers advisers) is inadequate.
Patrick Gifford, programme manager at FutureYou, says:
“Traditional methods of getting young people into work aren’t working. Young people have told us that career advisors and Job Centres were the least useful tool available to them. What they want is support from people their age, their families and working people they can take realistic advice from, and it’s online which is their ‘go-to’ destination.”
FutureYou – which is funded by local authorities, schools, colleges and public bodies such as the National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts and Nominet Trust – has already reached over 100,000 young people. Since its launch in 2010 it has helped a third of its members into employment by providing free career information, advice and guidance – and 85% feel more positive about their future. An army of FutureYou Mentors from major employers such Google, Thomas Cook, TalkTalk and Barclays are trained and ready to help.
But FutureYou say their offering goes deeper than just offering career advice. As their latest figures show that one in five young unemployed people feel their life is not worth living and a quarter have contemplated suicide to escape their situation, it’s clear that in a personal sense these are very dark days indeed for many young people. As Gifford explains:
“They need our help more than ever now. So, in addition to the more practical information, advice and guidance, we also provide young people with access to experienced counsellors who can offer emotional support and help pinpoint any wellbeing issues that may be holding them back from releasing their potential.”
Graduate Fog is disturbed by these new figures – but I can’t say I’m shocked. Anybody who’s ever been out of work for more than a few days knows how scarily fast your confidence and motivation can evaporate. Successful job-hunting is about so much more than CVs and applications. (If anything that’s the easy bit!)
If your job-hunt has stalled, there’s a lot you can do. Dig deep and make a new plan to find work:
If you’re struggling with confidence and motivation, visit Graduate Fog’s Advice pages:
How to stay motivated and How to handle rejection
If you’ve become convinced there are no jobs out there, read:
How to fight the recession
How to find vacancies
And if you feel like you want to get your job hunt going, but somehow it’s just not happening, read:
How to organise your job hunt
For more information about Future You, visit thefutureyou.org.uk or facebook.com/futureyouuk
*Is job hunting getting you down?
Do you think there should be more emotional support and counselling offered to young people struggling to find a job? What do you do when you’re having a ‘down’ day?
Since graduating in summer 2010 I have applied for over 500 jobs.
I have had only temporary work, internships and long periods of unemployment. I too feel like my life is being wasted, the future is a blank canvas and all I do is take each day as it comes. I have no long term plans even though I am engaged as I have no idea what will happen tomorrow.
I hardly leave the house and only leave my bed to search for jobs most days. I’ve put on weight and sleep only sporadically. Some times I wonder if i can carry on much longer.
The only consolation is that there are many other people in a similar situation. Yes the Job Centre is useless and the employees at my local branch are almost as hopeless as I am about the future and have no a advice to offer, other than to carry on applying for jobs.
I have never heard of FutureYou and am looking at their website with interest. Thank you for your support of people in my situation.
These are the statistics that nobody (ie. government) wants to know about. Unemployment numbers and percentages, those are tolerable, they’re just numbers. But these numbers are quantities of feelings:
“four in ten feel excluded from society” means a lot more than “45 students applying for every graduate job”.
You have a big campaign going here with GF, but if there is one bit of it I would like to see plastered everywhere and hammered into the brains of policy makers and politicians, it is these statistics and stories like that posted by A Graduate above.
but if there is one bit of it I would like to see plastered everywhere and hammered into the brains of policy makers and politicians
And parents and students?
There simply are too many grads and not enough jobs. Alter one of those variables and you may have a solution.
I graduated last year and have yet to land a graduate job despite applying for over 700 jobs and having travelled the country for interviews with around 25 companies. I feel that my life has also been wasted but I have no choice but to keep trying but attending interviews is quite expensive and I am close to running out of money so I need a job even more.
I have found that for shop assistant and other none grad roles your best bet to get to the interview stage is to leave your degree off the application and dumb your application down a bit. You may not want those jobs but it may be our only option to earn money which will allow us to keep travelling the country in the vain and expensive hope of getting a job.
@All
Thanks so much for sharing all your stories – I think it’s so important that we talk about this side of job-hunting, as you’re right @AGraduate, this is about so much more than just numbers – it’s about young people feeling at home feeling worthless when they’re NOT.
Do any of you have any tips for getting through the really low days?
Have any of you sought advice / help from any other source other than job centres? Has anything else been helpful?
I have been unemployed for 3 years now, applied for over 1000 jobs. I’ve actually all but given up, not with the job seeking but in hope. I live off my parents and JBSA, and while not exactly loving it, I make do. I even manage to go out once a month. The free time has allowed me to concentrate on cooking, something which I hated at uni – now I love it. Even cleaning is therapeutic… amazing what unemployment does to the soul
Hmm, feeling that my life is being wasted…. actually I’ve been feeling like that for years, ever since Thatcher got in in 1979 to be exact. Even when there were jobs around they were usually spirit-crushing, brain-numbing pittance paying jobs in call centres, supermarkets and the like, unless you had a degree that is. So, eventually I discovered that mature people could be acceptable to some universities, so I went off and got a degree, and that was in 2008 and hundreds of applications later, still nothing. My response in November 2010 was to set up as a freelance writer. I still get little more than £50 a week as I’ve just started, but at least I don’t have to deprave myself in front of the benefit people. The truth is we’re living in a turbo-capitalist society that pays the minority mega-bucks while most people get paid a pittance – or nothing.
When I was unemployed I volunteered for 7 hours a week in a charity with children with learning disabilities and found that it helped me to feel I was not wasting my life, I enjoyed it and it looked good on my CV. I left when I found a job I wanted. You can volunteer in something to get work experience to help you get a job http://www.volunteering.org.uk/
@graduate27 …I agree volunteering is a fantastic way to gain experience and add to your CV. It’s just a shame that those who rely on benefits to cover the bills whilst they search for paid work are unable to claim under the jobseekers agreement, thus eliminating it as an option.
I do volunteer but that still hasn’t got me a grad job. I have volunteered for a local credit union since December 2009. For 10 months I volunteered at a local radio station where I had my own radio show for 6 months. I also volunteer for a local homeless charity and have done for over a year.
Plenty of interviews that cost a fortune to attend but no job yet.
Unemployed people used to be able to reclaim the cost of attending non-local interviews from the job centre – probably they still can. Please check very carefully what you’re entitled to and how the process works.
In theory, every claimant will be told about every benefit that might help them while job hunting. I bet that doesn’t happen in practice.
That is still the case but I have been told I can’t use the Travel To Interview scheme anymore because I have had too many interviews outside the area. Maybe they have a cooling off period which will allow me to use it again.
Wayne, in a time of such high unemployment it’s RIDICULOUS for JCP to stop you taking up interview offers.
Ask to speak to the JCP advisor’s section leader as you think the advice you’ve been given is mistaken. If the section leader doesn’t help, go up the management chain as high as you need to – and can. And if all else fails, set up an appointment with the Citizens Advice Bureau who will be able to tell you what JCP are REALLY supposed to do. GOOD LUCK!
I’m in full time work and I still don’t feel like part of society. In your twenties you have the worst of both worlds. You are expected to work and behave like and adult and yet you are still regarded as a teenager by the older adults.
with all the graduates struggling for employment, where is the best place to advertise when you have a job available??
Is there not a database available with listings under specialised / studied subjects?
I graduated in 2008 and still struggling to secure a job, been to almost every possible interview and assessment centre to most of the grad jobs I applied for. The big problem here is the UKBA rules, international students such as me are struggling big times with the govn. changing rules every now and then leaving the impression on employers that visa processes are hard and not worth the hassle. I was successfully offered 2 jobs at different companies yet I couldn’t start due to the companies pulling out 2 weeks before the start date stating they cannot sort the visa out (whereas agreeing in the beginning to do it).
So its getting really hard, especially in interviews when the people ask you what have I been doing since 2008 and now being end of 2011!!
In the beginning 2008 I was studying for a degree and became unwell. My doctor suggested I go home to get well and sort myself out. She told me staying at uni was just going to make thing worse. So I followed my doctor’s advice and went home, thinking I’ll get well, spend 6 months working in a shop or office somewhere and go back to uni with some cash and carry on.
It’s now 2012, the opportunity to go back to uni has long gone. I spend most of my time alone and have done for what feels like years. In 2011 I had 10 temporary positions and still spent most of my time alone. I’m now a shell of my former self, steadily becoming over-weight despite regular bursts of exercise. I’m on anti-depressants, I don’t sleep well and I have no social life what so ever.
Older people tell me if only they could be in their 20s, turning 20 was the best, they tell me they were the richest they ever were, working full time and not supporting wives, elderly parents and children.
I have none of that. I’m 24 now, I’m about to move over from unemployed 16 – 24 year olds to 25+. It means I move to a new advisor that is supposed to help me and yet pretends to ring me at home (where I almost always are) and then sends a letter out saying ‘we tried to contact you several times but you weren’t in’. For three years I’ve being going in and out of that job centre and the over-riding impression is the people inside have no idea how to help me and the people outside are surrounded by the stench of piss, alcohol and weed!
It’s not surprising really, some find the need to get high before stepping over the threash-hold. The only thing that keeps me going on the very worst days is my cat. If I wasn’t here to look after her, I’d worry to much for her.
To sum up I do believe my life is being wasted. I should be young, fit and happy, Not growing older every day, getting fatter ever day and becoming more and more miserable every day!