ONE IN TEN BUSINESSES PLANS TO CULL YOUNG WORKERS
Worrying news reaches Graduate Fog that businesses are planning to reduce their numbers of junior employees – suggesting that young people could be the first in the firing line in a new round of redundancies. And more than half of companies said they would not be taking on any new graduates this year.
The survey – conducted by training consultancy firm Ethical Skills & Training – revealed that 10% of businesses admitted they were making plans to lay off some of their young employees (aged 18-24).
Graduates in the East Midlands are likely to be hardest hit – 14% of businesses in the region are planning to reduce employees in this age group.
The good news is that in jobs hotspots the West Midlands and London, a fifth of employers are actively seeking to employ young people. The less good news is that these regions also have some the highest living costs of anywhere in the country – so even graduates who do find work are likely to find their finances feeling seriously squeezed.
For many companies, the cost of training young staff was the major barrier to hiring and retaining young staff – 33% of businesses polled said this was their main concern. This is despite the fact that a third of businesses admitted to spending just £100 to £500 on training a young person during their first year at work. Such tight-fistedness is unlikely to surprise Graduate Foggers – many of whom have already been forced to effectively train themselves by doing months of unpaid internships before they are eligible to apply to what were formerly ‘entry level’ jobs.
Other companies polled claimed that it was their young employees’ poor performance that meant they were first in line for lay-offs. Bosses cited poor time keeping, poor attendance, poor verbal and communalisation skills, a lack of drive or commitment and inappropriate dress as reasons why the axe was most likely to fall on their younger staff.
This news broke on the same day that the Government gleefully announced that unemployment was at a ten-year low (down 88,000) and youth unemployment has also fallen (by 79,000) – which has left Graduate Fog is feeling rather confused. This data simply doesn’t match what we know to be the day-to-day reality for job-seeking graduates in 2011. What’s going on? Is it because:
More young people are in education? The total number of 16 to 24 year-olds in full-time education rose by 61,000. But is a good thing? As some Graduate Foggers have learned the hard way, extra qualifications aren’t always a good investment.
More young people are working part-time, because they can’t find full-time jobs? The number of people ‘under-employed’ in this way rose by 46,000.
Unpaid interns don’t count as ‘unemployed’? Because interns can’t claim JSA, are you slipping through the cracks in the research? Because the latest stats show there are over 128,000 of you doing this kind of work in the UK.
One expert – Howard Archer, IHS Global Insight economist – agreed that the Government’s joy at the latest unemployment figures was premature. He told the Telegraph:
“The labour market is currently showing resilience in the face of a struggling economy, but the key question is: can it last? We have serious doubts about this and suspect that unemployment will head up in the second half of the year as public sector jobs are increasingly pared and private sector companies become more cautious.”
Graduate Fog is unconvinced that the slight drop in youth unemployment is proof that young workers – including graduates – are out of the woods yet.
We know that unpaid internships continue to be THE big issue for job-seeking graduates, keeping you away from the unemployment figures – but out of paid work. I am also deeply concerned about the new stats from Ethical Skills and Training, which suggest that new graduates are more likely to be targeted for redundancy than older workers.
My worry is that the current unemployment figures could mask a potential crisis for graduate unemployment further down the line – unless something is done about helping you into proper, paid jobs, NOW.
*Will graduates be first in the firing line?
What do you think, are the chancellors announcements on youth unemployment hiding a bigger problem? Have you found it difficult to find entry level work after leaving university? What do you think of business’s justification that you’re simply too expensive to train?
I think arts graduates, in particular, are not being represented here. I have already interned (unpaid – not registered as unemployed) at various places for a year. I’m a first-class Warwick history and culture graduate, with NCTJ (journalism) qualifications, and when it comes to the paid internship vacancies and the ‘editorial assistant’ vacancies I’ve applied for… so far, I’m lucky if I get an interview. As time passes my confidence drops, which doesn’t help.
I can finally hope to save up a bit of money now as a freelancer. Fingers crossed I’ll soon be self-sufficient on travel and food. Renting, though, is still looking like a pipe-dream. I don’t know the best way forward… Private tutoring? Teaching assistant work? Do I need to leave London? I’d be happy to hold down two roles, but when it comes to solid, full-time employers, they just aren’t investing in young people any more.
A first-class international studies friend is doing admin now. A music composition graduate is joining the army. A first-class Cambridge English graduate is living in his mum’s house while she works abroad. Another Cambridge grad is assisting in an office, saving for a Masters in Sweden, where conditions are better for young people. Two friends near Lancaster are working full-time, but can’t afford their own place. Many others are teaching English abroad. A junior reporter at the big issue is about to suffer a pay-cut.
There are very, very few “career paths” available for Arts graduates in this country so it looks like “education, education, education” simply does not pay off.
As for me, I wasn’t registered as unemployed while i was interning. Now, I think my freelance work effectively means I’m a part-timer. I’m working, I’m finally getting paid, but it’s not enough to support myself on.
P.S. sorry for whinging – I have a great life! It’s just, these figures astonish me too…
“many of whom have already been forced to effectively train themselves by doing months of unpaid internships before they are eligible to apply to what were formerly ‘entry level’ jobs.”
Tanya you really must stop moving the goalposts. On the one hand you despise unpaid internships claiming there is no learning evident and interns are doing work that would otherwise be paid. On the other hand, when convenient you turn this argument to say internships are learning on the job. Which is it?
All too frequently I think you want to express this wider debate in terms of its specific impact, trouble is there is no such thing, the economic impact isn’t specifically targetting grads, its targetting everyone but you fail to see it. Mass redundancies (of all ages and qualifications), rising prices yet conversely youth unemployment figures are down.
Sometimes you need to take a step back in order to see that you aren’t being persecuted, you’re merely just a symptom of something bigger that isn’t functioning as it should.
@Derrick
Sorry if you feel I didn’t express myself clearly or am contradicting myself – but I actually stand by both points. When I graduated 10 years ago, graduates were hired on a combination of their qualifications, practical experience and potential as an employee. When they started work, it was understood that they would probably take a couple of months to get ‘up to speed’ with how to do the job exactly as required. With no commercial experience (apart from a few weeks of temping) I found it easy to walk into a job as an office manager for a recruitment firm in London, earning 20k. If I’m honest, I was pretty rubbish at first. But I guess they saw some potential in me – which they knew they could develop. In the next 3 months, the standard of my work undoubtedly leapt. But if they had suggested not paying me for those 3 months work, I would have been shocked.
A decade on, and I don’t even recognise the job market that today’s graduates are facing. Not only are they expected to pay around £30k for their qualifications (mine was free), they are to then work for free for several months (at least) before even being considered for what was formerly an ‘entry level’ job. Then, employers complain about spending a lousy few hundred quid on a bit of hand-holding while that graduate learns the ropes within the company. Well, I think that’s pretty disgusting.
In the ‘dood old days’ you were “pretty rubbish” – so why should an astute dynamic employer firstly employ you and secondly pay to try and polish something that is rubbish?
In those ten years, yes the market has changed, and so have employers benchmarks, seems to me you want to go back to the past and forget that the benchmark has moved for all of us, that’s employers AND those over 25. Education has also changed (probably its declines) but it seems you want your reference points to remain solid and fixed…I’m afraid that’s not just unrealistic, its lacks progression.
Please update your thinking. Its easy to be against things (the whole world?) but much harder to decide what you are for.
@Derrick
I am very clear that I am ‘for’ the fair, decent, reasonable and respectful treatment of young workers by their employers. What are you ‘for’? (apart from having a go at me!)
I’m allowed to question your stance, after all you adopted one in cyber space in the first place, or are journalists somehow off limits?
You’re not for young workers though, because you object to younger (and perhaps more capable workers) taking the jobs of grads. You even object to employers who take this perfectly feasible course of action.
Me? I’m against unpaid work and the exploitation of workers. I’m also against generalise unfocussed opinion that endeavours to cover all bases, but fails to see the linkages that exist between them. I’m for specifics with examples and evidence, that is current and not out of date. I also support good journalism and research.
@Derrick I think both things mentioned can be true in the job market at any one time.
I think employers expect too much of young employees and have become greedy with their demands and expectations. Until you reach this super level of amazingness after a long time it is either stingy pay (backed up in working benefits by the government) or no pay.
Yes technology has changed in the last ten years but we are talking about a complete turnaround in what a job is and how you go about getting it. Are you okay with this? In an abstract sense, I don’t see how people will have changed all that much in just a decade. The difference is that more and more is expected of people, for no pay, for less pay, than ever before. Anyway I digress..
The second point is – of course any young person will need to get acquainted with the working world when they start out, which is the kind of training/experience young people lag behind in. For example, they may need to learn about office culture and whatever terminology is used in that area. This is all very easy to pick up. This is the only training that is needed, as everything can be picked up through being given a chance
Tanya can you please *delete* my posts above? I actually wouldn’t like this comment to be linked to my full name until the END OF TIME. Anonymity would’ve been so much wiser.
The point I really wanted to make (and now want to make anonymously) is that I’m a graduate, with industry-specific training on top of that, but have worked unpaid for a year and still struggle to get interviewed for ‘assistant’ or ‘junior’-level journalistic or research positions in London.
I’m making peanuts. If I continue earning what I’m earning this month, I’ll make £6000 p.a. and that’s not remotely good enough. If *I’m* struggling, what does that say for those that *didn’t* go to a Russell-Group university?
I think this is much more of a problem for Arts graduates, but it’s still a problem for graduates across the board.
I suspect you’re right about the potential loophole in the stats, as while I was interning I haven’t been registered as unemployed. I’ve been privileged to have sofa space, bed space, shelter, from other people, but I have no actual money, just debt.
Are there stats on the number of ‘dependents’ in any one household in the UK? That would be worth looking at. I even know Cambridge grads who can’t live independently – in London at least – because they’re only finding part-time work.
Derrick, surely the issue with graduates, as opposed to school-leavers (equally worthy of investment) is that graduates have been encouraged to take out huge loans to fund an education that doesn’t pay off.
Why is university education still being promoted to young people as a pathway to prosperity? I’m a typical Arts graduate, I don’t care about being *rich*, I don’t think that money is the source of all happiness… Even so, I expected a basic stipend; to be able to support myself. NOT to be subsisting on the hospitality and support of others, well into my mid-twenties.
All too often as a graduate, if you go for menial jobs, they see you as over-qualified and are reluctant to take you seriously. If you go for entry-level white collar jobs, they want you to have ‘experience’ and are worried about training you.
The other point to make is that in 2010, 23% of Arts graduates were undertaking unpaid work, 4 years after finishing their degree. Long stints of unpaid labour, being undertaken by *anybody*, should worry everybody in the job market. It exacerbates a downward pressure on *all* wages in that industry.
In politics, internship culture is barring entry to whole swathes of people who can’t work for free, meaning governance will continue to reflect the needs of only the most privileged. I agree the world is changing drastically and that there’s ‘something bigger that isn’t functioning as it should’. Not in all industries admittedly, but in many. You talk about the need to be realistic, flexible and accept ‘progression’. I don’t think ‘progress’ is the right suprafix for this situation.
(I don’t actually *mean* dependents in any one household… I mean, stats on the number of dependents within households across the UK. But I think you get the drift…)
@Tanya
‘Unpaid interns don’t count as ‘unemployed’? Because interns can’t claim JSA’
I found this very interesting, what IF interns COULD get JSA? By doing an unpaid internship I think interns could claim JSA. It does in someway satisfy the JSA agreements.
The intern can actively seek work outside of work.
The intern is already seeking to improve his employability by interning (for free).
The company still gets off scott free and the intern gets SOMETHHING!
I agree, over and over Tanya that unpaid work IS illegal, but could this be an immediate and effective solution?
Lemme find the agreement! Would this encourage anyone to intern anywhere for *free*? I know I’d do it.
from Intern Nation:
“why should an employer pay for something ever again once it can be had for free? Every time young people scramble for an unpaid position, they reinforce the flawed perception that certain kinds of work have lost all value. Whether or not any given individual is happy to make this trade-off, the decision has consequences for everybody else. For an inexact but suggestive comparison, imagine if Chinese carmakers, keen to capture market share and subsidized by Beijing, started offering their cars to American customers for free. This would be considered illegal for more or less the same reason: using an unfair advantage to drop the price to zero both distorts markets and destroys livelihoods.”
Any attempt to *accommodate* this level of competitiveness will just entrench it further. The law on minimum wage needs to be enforced.
10% are thinking of laying off young employees – are you kidding me? So 90% are not. That sounds like a good news story to me.
@NiccoloM
I’m afraid it’s still bad news! 10% is still quite a large number of actual business considering this sort of action (apparently). Besides which, young people shouldn’t the first against the wall anyway.