CRITICS HIGHLIGHT “HUGE INEQUALITIES” BETWEEN GENERATIONS’ FINANCES AS ECONOMY PICKS UP (APPARENTLY)
Politicians are celebrating as new figures show that the UK economy is recovering – but critics insist that the country’s young people are far from feeling the benefits of any uplift yet.
While overall unemployment and the number claiming jobseeker’s allowance (JSA) has fallen, youth unemployment is up slightly. The number of people in part-time work because they can’t find full-time work (a common complaint among Graduate Fog’s users) is the highest it’s been since records began. In George Osborne’s cruel lessons for generation Y London Evening Standard’s thirty-something columnist Richard Godwin wrote last night:
“If you’re renting in Mile End, another surge in house prices is likely to fill you with despair, not elation.
“A teenager on a zero-hours contract in Enfield may wonder what he’s supposed to do with a 0.7 per cent rise in GDP, just as an unemployed history graduate in Woolwich will struggle to see how a new car plant in Solihull will help her job prospects.
“Meanwhile, a retiree in Richmond whose experiment with the buy-to-let market is paying off very nicely, thank you, may wonder what all this recession business is about.
“To put it another way, any economic forecast is a generalisation that conceals huge inequalities and inequities. Generation Y (those born 1980-2000) have very good reason to feel that Osborne is describing a country to which they don’t belong.
“After all, it is Britain’s young who are most likely to be trapped in the over-heated rental market, most likely to be on a zero-hours contract, most likely to use payday loan companies, most likely to have slaved under an unlawful “Workfare” scheme, and most likely to be unemployed even now.”
He also attacked employment minister Iain Duncan Smith for labelling young people an “X Factor generation” of “job-snobs” who believe that “success is not related to effort or work”. What do you think? Do you agree with Richard? Have young people been forgotten in this supposed economic uplift?
*ARE YOU FEELING THE BENEFITS OF THE ECONOMIC RECOVERY?
Does it seem that there are more jobs around than there were six months ago? Do you have more money in your pocket? How confident are you that your financial situation is improving?
I see what Iain Duncan Smith means when he calls our generation “job snobs”, as he sees graduates less willing to take up more menial tasks and striving for more prestigious jobs. He, however, misinterprets this attitude: we went to university for three years paying more than any other generation on the premise that we would be employable afterwards. Excuse me for not wanting to go work in a shop for the rest of my life, but I could have done that after GCSEs. I’m trying to have confidence in my abilities rather than falling into a slump of worthlessness and the inevitability of failure.
Instead I find myself in a number of very badly paid internships and working in a bar at weekends. None of my income, therefore, gets taxed(as I earn next to naught) and I give nothing back to the economy. That’s what irritates Mr Duncan Smith.
I have a first from a top university. This is a massive hindrance when applying for jobs stacking shelves in Asda. I wish I’d never gone to university at all.
@ Jamie, what you fail to observe is that despite going to university ‘on the premise that you’d be employable’ those jobs aren’t there. So it is rather snobbish to turn yourself up at retail jobs simply because the jobs in your sector aren’t there. Its realistic to understand the issue, its unrealistic to blame the market or the world. Perhaps graduates need to accept the realities of the workplace more and stop blaming past decisions on others. No one can forecast the future.
@Peter F The problem is that low skill retail jobs see I have a first from a top university and believe that I will not be a “good fit” – whatever that means. Removing my degree from the CV leaves an unexplained CV gap of several years. You can’t win!
@grad: oh, how I feel your pain. I have 2 undergrads and a masters. You can’t leave 7 years of your life out of your CV. I think what they mean by a good fit is it obvious that if you get offered something better you’ll leave. They really needn’t worry!!!
It’s not the Xfactor or celebrity culture that has made me think ‘success is not related to effort or work’ it’s seeing people who do work, often very hard, in low paid work and still cant afford to get off benefits and set up a decent life for themselves.
I don’t think any type of work is beneath me but if the pay is too low to live on or they cant guarantee me any hours then they really cant expect my commitment. The jobs are there but they are not necessarily the kind of jobs that are going to help people out of poverty or allow young people to start there adult lives.
I mean ‘their’ adult lives
I worked in retail for six years (from 16 to 22) and I don’t want to do it anymore. It makes me so angry when I get accused of being a snob – if you stay in any sector for too long, you run the risk of never being able to make the leap into another one. Does IDS want a nation of shop workers with no other skills to offer? We need other people too!
I don’t think the recovery is anything to celebrate for young people. I’m still trying to make a step up from my entry-level job without success, my partner is trying to do the same, we’re clinging on to a one-bed flat we can barely afford the rent on while trying to save every penny towards a house deposit (which we probably won’t get the mortgage for anyway). An extra-large bill can wipe us out for the month – recently the clutch went on my partner’s car and it was £350 in repairs. We were very very lucky in that circumstance that his parents were able to step in and help but they can’t do this all the time (and I don’t think they should have to). We just want to earn a decent living at jobs we are capable of doing well – why is that too much to ask? We’re both graduates but that’s got nothing to do with it – I never EVER thought my degree would get me a job on a plate (and I have a 1st).
We have a major problem with inequality in this country. Some inequality is inevitable, but it has gone beyond ridiculous to the extent that increasingly someone either needs to be exceptional or have wealthy parents to make any real progress in their lives. By progress I mean all the things that previous generations took for granted.
Quite what will be the effect of excluding people from having a ‘normal’ life is uncertain, but my guess will be that starting families will be pushed back even further, as will people’s ability to afford homes. I also forecast even more immigration because of the ‘skills gap’ – which is only a ‘gap’ because we live in a highly iniquitous country that doesn’t allow many people to develop those skills. Instead, it demonizes those who don’t strive as being lazy and accuses those with ambition of being ‘snobs’.
It isn’t about being a ‘snob’ about jobs. What a moronic and insensitive sentiment. It’s about the fact that people just won’t employ you in certain jobs if you have degrees and postgrad quals. You either have to leave it off your CV (in which case there are huge gaps) or hope that you can explain to someone’s satisfaction why you are interested in what they do.
Any sign of economic improvement is welcome but reports of this one seem over-hyped.
Unemployment’s down …
…but zero hours contracts count as “employment”
…the number working part-time is the highest ever so there’s a question mark whether full-time jobs are merely being split into several part-time ones
…youth unemployment’s at an all-time high
…4 out of every 5 jobs are paid at the National Minimum Wage.
Take everything IDS says with a pinch of salt- he is someone who has become rich through marrying into money, plus he manipulates statistics at every opportunity. Keep an eye out for him appearing in front of the Work and Pensions Select Committee to explain himself (this was supposed to have been in early September, although has now been postponed until some date in October, supposedly due to delays with a report).
Here’s another reason why you shouldn’t take seriously hypocritical tory MPs who trumpet on about graduates allegedly being ‘too lazy’ to stack shelves. Their offspring don’t need to make the effort to find themselves jobs as mummy or daddy just creates one for them, funded by the public purse. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2420625/MP-Nadine-Dorries-pays-daughters-75k-public-purse-work-office–just-given-15k-pay-rise.html
Lets not be naive…. anecdotal evidence reported within the media suggest that 50%of young black guys (aged 18-24) were unemployed as of May 2011, whilst male applicants aged 50+ and being unemployed through redundancy may have to address ageist recruitment practices, and some employers will demand any female who is of child bearing age.
After graduating in july 2010 in computing was a bit naive in thinking that most ill be out of work is 6 months fast forward 3 years and stuck in a dead end call centre job reduced my hours to part time because of the emotional fatigue 8 hours a day repeating more or less the same 3 lines (in my sleep too) wont mention the name of the company its a paying job with a decent contract but i make the same now after claiming working tax and all the rest what im legally obligated to and come out with the same as someone on full time hours in that place. I feel that the powers that be lied to me not even 6 months “work experience” cut it on the cv for a decent career. I now know my place and not a sleepless night goes by without regretting the choice of going university. Just hope now i dont live to ever see a recovery. Talk about wrong place right time.
@Anon
We are all suckers. We fell for the lie that investing thousands of pounds into a university education would benefit us. It did create jobs – a few for the academics at any rate! We were young. When my teachers said I would earn thousands of pounds more than a non-graduate over my life time if I “invested” in a degree I was too young to know any better.
@grad,
@anon
I feel your pain. I graduated July this year and the only job I’ve managed to get is stacking shelves. I’m actually fairly lucky because my team and my immediate supervisors don’t really care too much in fact they regret not going uni until I remind the youngest one who is the same age as me (21) if she had gone uni she wouldn’t be a manager. The biggest problem I’ve had is the senior manager say that I wasted tax payers money and should have done a degree that leads to a job, and she then references some of her relatives, she also dislikes another girl on the team because she’s a student. I think it’s catch 22 I regret going uni but I would have probably regretting not going just like my supervisors