EMPLOYERS HUNT OVER-QUALIFIED YOUNG WORKERS FOR MENIAL JOBS
Highly qualified university graduates are being targeted to fill low-skilled menial jobs, in a dark new trend employment experts are calling ‘credentialism’. This reflects our growing suspicion that large numbers of graduates counted as being in work are in fact ‘under-employed’, doing jobs well below their capabilities and qualifications.
New research from the Higher Education Careers Service Unit shows that the number of UK university leavers working in menial jobs including junior office roles, shelf-stacking and labouring jobs six months after graduating had jumped by 3,500 to 60,000 — a rise of 6% in just one year. The report puts the increase down to employers knowing it is a buyer’s market — as unemployed graduates are desperate for any work they can get:
“This [finding] is partly because of the increase in the number of graduates over time, which has sparked ‘credentialism’ where businesses employ graduates in lower-skilled jobs.”
Worryingly, the report appears to confirm a growing trend. A separate study published earlier this year found that, of those graduates in work, 14 per cent were in sales and customer service positions, including sales assistants, market traders and call centre staff. Nine per cent were in administrative jobs and seven per cent were in “elementary occupations” such as shelf stackers, labourers, cleaners, road sweepers. But the authors of the HECSU report insisted there was no reason for alarm as many graduates’ brush with low-skilled work would be short-lived:
“Even though the number of graduates in non-graduate occupations immediately after graduation has increased, it is still more beneficial to be a graduate than not … Although graduates may begin in non-graduate level employment six months after graduation, they move up the ladder relatively quickly.”
Graduate Fog isn’t so sure — can it really be good news that so many graduates are spending tens of thousands of pounds on their education only to go into low-skilled jobs previously done by those without a degree? Or in this economy, should graduates just be grateful they have any job, even if it means starting at the bottom?
*ARE YOU AN OVER-QUALIFIED GRADUATE DOING A LOW-SKILLED JOB?
Do you think you’ll progress faster up the ladder than a non-graduate would? Do you see the job as a stepping stone – or are you worried you’ll get stuck in it long-term? How does your employer feel about your qualifications – or did you delete your degree from your CV because you worried you’d be rejected for being over-qualified?
I graduated with a 2:1 2 years ago, and walked straight into a retail job. But within 6 months I had been hunted down (through my CV being on Music Jobs) by an artist agency and am now working full time in something related to my degree and earning an OK wage. I think if you put yourself out there, and are open to opportunities, then something always happens. But you have to be prepared to put up with something to pay the bills in the meanwhile. People do recognise potential if you work hard. x
and again I don’t mean to sound harsh, but a lot of the low skilled work has gone to the far east and what is left in this country is done by the eastern Europeans because know that they can pay NMW for them and they will accept. The main reason that this country has to many graduates is that Tony Blair said “education education education” the reason he said this is because he knows in his own head they are very few low skilled jobs left for the people who aren’t or don’t want to go to university so by saying that speech means that the youth unemployment numbers are kept as low as they can be. I am a computing graduate.
I got trapped in admin six years ago. Still struggling to get out despite having improved my CV, achieved postgrad and undergrad qualifications, and amassed various types of experience (paid and unpaid).
It is very difficult out there career-wise.
I graduated a year ago, and found that (after a brief internship working for Inspiring Interns) that getting a career started is less impossible than some seem to think- but getting the career that you actually want is the problem. I’m an aspiring creative and have thrown in the towel (for now) and am now focusing on training myself through the Prince’s Trust and starting my own business.
Took me about a year to find my first “proper” job. I would be inclined to agree with Emily that if you put yourself out there and you’re open to opportunity then, as a graduate, it will come.
I do not envy the young, uneducated, and unemployed. I really think those are the true victims of this recession, as their lack of a degree (or maybe even A-levels) puts them in a far worse position than the majority of graduates (who are young, underemployed, but highly educated).
I have an MA and a BA, and I’m working in a customer services role- which requires neither qualification. Oh, and it’s part time. Under-employed is definitely a term I identify with.
Though it’s no comfort to grads emerging onto a dreadful jobs market, I’ve never understood why so many employers make the mistake of hiring brighter-than-necessary and well-qualified people for menial jobs. They’re not likely to perform as well as someone who wanted that kind of job. They’ll be off as soon as something more promising turns up.
Oh.. the joy of sales assistants & customer service! Its almost the only jobs recruiters call me about. I think the later is a lot to do with my language skills which makes me “desirable” but then I just do not want that kind of jobs.
Agree fully with what CareersPartnershipUK says.. I mean I am just having this job to not be unemployed! As soon as I can I will leave. Anyone having some advice how to target yourself towards new job positions/industries? I have done unpaid experience in my field, and all that rubbish.
A degree does not = highly educated. Not any more.
Just putting that out there.
Well, Bob, of course not if you put it in the context of most of us having a degree.
However the (paid) jobs I have been having since graduation has paid less than the job I had before starting my degree, as well as I might would have been better off not going if you only think of my finical situation before/after. Obviously my degree gave me so much more and I do not regret it, but if I knew what I know now I might would have taken a different route..
I think you’ll find an increase from 3,500 to 60,000 is a lot more than 6%. Get back to cleaning the toilets!
TeachersPet: You obviously weren’t the teacher’s pet, at least not in English or Mathematics. Read it again:
“…had jumped by 3,500 to 60,000″
That means last year there was actually 56500 (60000 – 3500).
And what would a 3500 increase on 56500 be as a percentage? Roughly 6%.
How about you get back to cleaning the toilets?
@ CareersPartnershipUK
Please define menial jobs. Maybe give some examples.
@Derrick
I think we all know them. These jobs don’t provide a mental challenge for anyone but people who’ve left school without any qualifications and haven’t subsequently tried to upgrade their education may find them more tolerable than grads do.
All human beings deserve respect but not all jobs do. Some jobs exist only because machines haven’t yet been designed to do them or it’s marginally cheaper / better to employ human beings.
The jobs are characterised by being “doing” roles for which you need minimal on the job training. The tasks done in the first fortnight will be endlessly repeated for as long as you’re in the job. There’s infinitesmally small scope for increasing skill levels. Progression into related work at a more demanding level is rare and exceedingly slow.
These jobs are often done on a temp basis, purely to earn money, by students still at school or at uni. For a graduate to be doing them is a shocking waste of trained mind. The fact so many graduates have to do them because they can’t find more suitable work is desperately sad and a huge indicator of the UK’s economic failings.
Menial jobs of this type I’d say include supermarket work (shelf-filling and till operation); restaurant work (waiting, kitchen duties and bar work); basic office jobs; many postal service jobs; unskilled factory work; and so on.
The ‘Menial’ term used doesn’t really relate to some of the jobs included in the 60,000 who were in non-graduate employment. Some of the jobs that these 60,000 graduates were doing six months after graduation include:
Educational assistant (teaching assistant)
Marketing assistant
Draughtsperson
Electrical/electronic technicians
Wages clerks
Book keepers
Fitness instructors
Prison service and fire service officers
Nursing auxiliaries
Paramedics
From this list alone you can see that not all of these jobs are ‘menial’ and that some of them are the first step on the ladder to move up professionally to work as marketing executive, financial accountant, senior prison/fire service officers (the fire service officer starts on about £23,000 a year which isn’t a ‘menial’ wage). You can’t take a figure and assume that you know what occupations these individuals are doing and why they are doing it.
I get that people are angry at this sort of thing and fair enough, but the real problem simply isn’t that some people out of university are doing lower skilled jobs, the problem is that in some parts of the country especially where costs of living are higher, but also in parts where there is more unemployment so you might not be getting fulltime hours, that these jobs are not enough to support yourself.
This is a problem that has been the case for some time amongst those on lower income since way before the recession.
I’d also say that some menial jobs aren’t so bad. I’ve been a handyman whenever I’m not doing anything else since I was 16 and it’s actually quite a lot of fun: Lego for grownups. Problem is given the sky-high rental market in the capital city, I struggled just to make ends meet.
Oops, did I get the maths wrong? Or did the Telegraph? Or did I just not notice that the Telegraph got their maths wrong? Here is the original story that I adapted:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/educationnews/9599883/Graduates-fill-menial-jobs-as-post-university-unemployment-rises.html
I’m 24, I’ve been unemployed for one and a half years. If I could get a menial job, I’d be happy.
I just graduated in a first class degree in mathematics from RHUL. My friends have gone on to Audit for Delotte, Investmer Banking, pricing analyst or working for Barclays corporate.
Instead, I’m going to be a temporary sales advisor at my local Debenhams. The sad part? I was incredibly happy to get it having spent August-October on JSA.
Whoops, sorry about the typo. It’s hard to proofread when you’re on a phone!
Sometimes I am an over-qualified graduate in a low-paid job. More often than not I am an unemployed graduate. I do no see myself progressing up the career ladder at all. However, I do not share the same fate as a non-graduate. My employers – temping agencies – mentioned my degree qualification in passing, which I include on my CV, although they did not discuss my degree. I had to sit in the interview as though I was a non-graduate. At the outset, my employer showed no feeling one way or the other about my degree because they knew that they were going to get rid of me after three months.
When big employers are given 5 and 10 year tax breaks by local governments and councils, worth hundreds of thousands of pounds, they are laughing all the way to the bank because this means the labour is cheap or free. They could not care less what qualifications their employees have since they get their money regardless. I have not been asked to bring my education certificates to my last two callcentre jobs. What does that tell you?
I am defiant. I will continue my research into the social history of Victorian and Edwardian Doncaster, as I seek to eventually make money from writing, whether it takes me five years or twenty-five years.
Was the exactly the same the last time Conservatives were in power in the 80’s. Whoever votes for them who aren’t themselves already rich must have the brains of a turkey voting for christmas.
Am I worried that I will get stuck in low-paid work for the long term? Yes, definitely. Will a Labour government compensate all those graduates who have been denied a career due to the recession? Ed Miliband has said nothing to convince me that I will be assisted to begin a graduate career. Under the last Labour government, the Career Development Loan scheme it set up had failed to deliver. I had been offered a place at the University of Nottingham for the postgraduate course MA Social Policy and Administration which met the criteria for a CDL and this was my only option for funding. The government-sponsored banks rejected my application and gave no reason. I didn’t believe there was any point in appealing to the government because Labour’s blinkered Communitarian vision would have prevented it in interfering with the market.
I have picked myself up and developing a vocation as a local historian. However, I fit this around low-paid jobs and during my periods of unemployment. This is not a graduate career because my annual income is probably half of a graduate salary, without the added benefits of private pension. I have options to explore once I have all my research, although I will be living on a low income for possibly another five years.
I blame the last Labour government for choking off funding for postgraduate study, by allowing banks free reign over education. However, I do not trust the Conservatives or Liberal Democrats either.
I graduated over a year ago and I am still in the same part-time customer service role I was in throughout my degree earning £7 an hour for 20-30 hours a week, and there are a number of people I work with who are in the same position. I have been applying for jobs constantly since finishing university. I have tried to get unpaid internernships to fit around my job as I can’t afford to live of nothing and I am already relying heavily on my parents, however I have struggled to find part-time internships and companies seem to be put of me because I live outside of London and would be communting in for the internship. Compaines that offer to pay for travel expenses don’t want to pay travel expenses for people outside London.
Me and my boyfriend are looking into buying a house together although the banks don’t want to put me on the mortgage until I’ve been in a full time job for 6 months. Even though I’ve been working for my current employer for 4 years they don’t want to give me a mortgage because I’m on a casual workers contract. I feel like I’m in a rut that is extremely difficult to get out of.
I got a 1st MEng in electronics & electrical engineering from Edinburgh and then an MSc. Always been employed in circuit design and recently secured a job with 45% pay rise. The work is hard (but enjoyable) and I think that puts people off taking courses like engineering. Pay not as great as banking etc but then I don’t work all the hours under the sun. I can say with conviction that 6 years ago, 100% of my class got good jobs, and in the past 6 years the stats have been similar. I guarantee that if you’ve got a good degree in a subject like engineering, you will be doing relatively ok.
@CareersPartnershipUK
“I think we all know [menial jobs]. These jobs don’t provide a mental challenge for anyone but people who’ve left school without any qualifications and haven’t subsequently tried to upgrade their education may find them more tolerable than grads do.
All human beings deserve respect but not all jobs do. Some jobs exist only because machines haven’t yet been designed to do them or it’s marginally cheaper / better to employ human beings.”
Hmm…The problem with following that logic through is that surely eventually we’ll reach the stage where vast swathes of former jobs are automated so they require barely any human employees, and there are not enough jobs to replace them – what the Luddites were arguing during the Industrial Revolution. Indeed arguably that’s happened in much of the manufacturing sector already at least the West (not so much in the Far East where labour is far cheaper).
Since money is how scarce resources are allocated in our system, then clearly if too much of the population can’t earn enough to live off, and have no discretionary income (and credit can’t work forever), then the retail sector and our consumerist society can’t work.
The Luddites turned out to be wrong (well right about craftsmen losing out in some ways, but those factories required a lot of labour), but if the retail and service sector goes the way manufacturing has in the West (i.e. very few people needing the be employed – supermarkets seemed to be going that way even before the recession compared to my youth) – and the model for paid journalism, art etc. breaks down – then clearly not everyone can be employed as advanced engineers, machine overseers or doing the remaining jobs not automated, and I’m not convinced most of the population could earn enough to live off as “freelancer something-or-others”.
Surely if virtually all retail were automated/online (obliterating vast swathes of entry-level jobs), and the digitisation process and Information Revolution continue resulting in the shedding of much admin work (obliterating the data-entry jobs I’ve been eaking a living off), and efficiency, outsourcing and ultimately automation continue in the manufacturing sector (not to mention innovations like 3D printing), eventually we’d reach a tipping point (heading towards Star Trek-like post-scarcity and low labour demand) where our present socio-economic system could no longer function and have to replaced with something else we can’t imagine (well I can’t)?
Or is there something I’ve missed? The past shows many people make terrible predictions of the future.
Charlie Higson (The Fast Show) worked as a plasterer and decorator shortly after graduating from University of East Anglia. Harry Enfield worked as a milkman after graduating from University of York. David Mitchell (Peep Show) worked as an usher in a theatre after Cambridge. Moral of story:
To truly laugh, you must be able to take your pain, and play with it! (quote by Charlie Chaplin)
I just had a horrible thought. If this is the kind of employment that now requires a degree, what’s going to happen to the intellectually disabled people who used to be cleaners and such? What are they going to do to sustain themselves? Eat grass?
There is ‘starting at the bottom and working your way up’ and then there is ‘starting at the bottom and staying at the bottom’. The former has always been the case for most people, but what we are beginning to see is the latter taking precedence. As many people are discovering in this situation there is no progress, you are simply cheap disposable labour that will continue with the same level of job for the foreseeable future. The longer you remain in this situation the greater the risk of being pigeon-holed.
Certain types of jobs and employers expect a certain type of experience. Photocopying, washing cars/windows, making teas just won’t help you make progress above a certain level in many situations.
@Simon Hargreaves I agree that there is a difference between a low-paid job with potential (eg a paid internship) and a low-paid job without (stop-gap job). Sure, you can you can pick up some good skills and experience doing the latter (I always say any experience is better than no experience), but the former is a far more valuable opportunity. What I mean is, not all low-paid jobs are the same.
@Tanja Guven Yes I share your concerns. If experienced graduates are doing jobs once done by new graduates, and new graduates are doing jobs once done by non-graduates… what jobs are non graduates doing??
Interesting subject, and very rarely talked about I the mainstream media, unless it happens to fit the agenda of certain politicos.
I graduated in 2009 from a university in the north of England ( not a posh one) with a First Class honours in Business. Since then I have done the following jobs (in order):
Retail assistant (16 hrs a week) between 2010 to 2012
Temporary telesales contract (6 months)
Inbound customer services (temporary contract, 6 months)
Warehouse picker and packer (current job, temporary agency work)
I am now in my thirties. I went to uni and worked damn hard so I could make a decent career for myself and support my kids. I’m worse off now than I was when I was in my teens working in the same dead end jobs that I tried to escape when I was in my teens!
In that five years I have worked with guys who have got first class BA and MA Degrees, and who we’re unloading lorries at 7am just to pay the rent! In fact I have lost count of the number of highly-qualified people who I have worked with who were working in jobs that were seriously non-grad positions.
As Simon commented above, the opportunity for progression has turned into opportunities for regression. I see that many of the people that I went to university with are in the same position as me, grateful for an extra weeks work at the local warehouse, or for an extra three hours work at the local fish and chippy! I intend to leave this country when I have saved enough money as I don’t want this same cr@p for my kids. I just want to leave, and use my skills, preferably somewhere where these skills, and myself, will be appreciated. I really hate what this country has become.
Today’s generation of graduates really is the lost generation.
Just to add that the above spelling mistakes are due to spellcheck function on my tablet!
Graduated in 2008 with a BSc in science, spent 5 years watching the chaos happening around me. Fellows in the same situation spent a year or more applying for jobs in 2008/2009.
In the end I had to get a job to pay bills, it pays less than when I was working while still in secoundary school if you take inflation into account. And when you include travel costs I’m on less than minimum wage. The position is “Customer Assistant”, also known as shelf stacking.
All my friends are in the same position whether they went uni or didn’t. I spent 6 monthes living on £20 a week because I had to give rent to my parents out of job seekers allowence and I wasn’t entiltled to anything else due to my circumstances.
What I’ve learnt is that I don’t play by the rules anymore, prison is a cheaper place to live.
I have a first class degree in English Language,and eight months after graduation I’m working nights at a petrol station. My only chance to break out seems to be going back to university for a masters, but it leaves the prospect of having to be back in the same position in a year’s time.
The importance of a career in terms of career development is vastly overstated.
Charlie,
Why did you ever take an English Language degree? Were you not warned at school of meaningless humanities subjects?
Peter
PS – And why a Masters????? Have you not been sufficiently conned?
Meh.
I’m not doing ‘menial’ work, I’m not even going to repay my student loan ROFL.
Plan is to emigrate to north america and work in space engineering or software.
UK is a dead end folks.
Quote Mr X
“I got a 1st MEng in electronics & electrical engineering from Edinburgh and then an MSc. Always been employed in circuit design and recently secured a job with 45% pay rise. The work is hard (but enjoyable) and I think that puts people off taking courses like engineering. Pay not as great as banking etc but then I don’t work all the hours under the sun. I can say with conviction that 6 years ago, 100% of my class got good jobs, and in the past 6 years the stats have been similar. I guarantee that if you’ve got a good degree in a subject like engineering, you will be doing relatively ok.”
That is the truth. Subjects like electrical engineering, physics, chemical and mechanical engineering have high employment rates. As does the likes of medicine, dentistry and health sciences.
This article is a joke, right? I’ve been rejected by cleaning jobs, data entry and clerical jobs. I usually never hear anything back from this type of work.
I wish that I was working as a cleaner. Nowadays, even getting a part-time job is difficult.
( By the way, I have a degree in computer Networking….)
If we were living in a real meritocracy brilliant mathematicians and bright graduates would be being asked to make the world work better. Instead we live with a capitalist version of the cultural revolution, where straight A graduates can work in the supermarket or not at all. Its not as if this world isn’t full of problems no one is solving. The decision making positions end up being held by people who would have died from old age in the wild or toe the orthodoxy. Did you know a mathematicians warned the IMF about the financial crisis? That Vatican of economists laughed him out the room. Sod it just another intellectual dreaming of revolution, pissing into the wind.