“CLIPPED-WING GENERATION” CAN’T AFFORD TO MOVE OUT
Almost half of Great Britain’s 20- to 24-year-olds are still living with their mum and dad, according to new figures from the Office for National Statistics. Are you one of them?
Campbell Robb, chief executive of housing charity Shelter, said the plight of the ‘clipped wing generation’ demanded urgent attention from politicians. And National Housing Federation chief executive David Orr said that “empty nest syndrome” experienced by parents when their adult offspring move out is becoming a thing of the past.
Graduate Fog sees many reasons for this phenomenon. Too many people in this age group are stuck doing unpaid internships, low-paid casual ‘stop-gap’ jobs or zero-hours contracts. Others are claiming Jobseeker’s Allowance. Meanwhile, the cost of living keeps rising. In particular, you say rip-off rents and unaffordable transport costs are make it impossible for you to be financially independent in the years straight after you graduate from university.
Which of these factors is the biggest problem for you? Or have we missed something out? And if the government could only solve one of the problems you’re facing, which should it be?
*ARE YOU A GRADUATE LIVING WITH YOUR PARENTS?
How long have you been living with your mum and dad? What is stopping you from getting your own place? Share your experiences below…
Hi Tanya, this does affect me, but I’m not 20-24, I’m actually older!
How many of those things affect me?
Not me, because I refuse to work for free. However, the industry I’m technically trained in is full of unpaid work barriers.
Applies a small amount to me, but it wasn’t meant to be a stop-gap job.
Yet again, not me. I wouldn’t work a zero-hour contract
This I can agree with. My travel to work represents 20% of my take-home salary. Rents would cost me 40%. I’m afraid that is an intolerable amount of risk for very little reward, but it does have a negative impact.
@Costadel Thanks for your comment. What do you mean by ‘intolerable amount of risk’? Do you mean you’re worried about the financial commitment of taking on a lease for a flat, in case anything goes wrong with your job?
@Tanya: Yes. I guess there are two concerns there… One is the fact that jobs are hard to come by, and easy to lose.
The second is that I feel the safety blanket that we have and that we as a country should be proud of is very quickly becoming a shameful blanket from which there is no recovery. I would never, EVER, want it on my work record that I claimed any kind of benefits. I have a tremendous amount of empathy for those who are stuck in the benefits loop because every day, all I hear is ignorant and stupid middle aged men and women decrying the young as lazy, unmotivated leeches who don’t strive enough and have contributed nothing.
Yet, if the tables were turned, those same less educated, less skipped people would fare no better.
I know I’ll get to precisely where I want to be. But until I’m at least half-way there, I don’t think it’s a wise option to leave home.
The crazy housing market might have something to do with it. A one bedroom flat in Chelmsford within walking distance of the station is £175,000 on Zoopla.
http://www.zoopla.co.uk/for-sale/details/34462083#HA681hPGD0iHrc81.97
I’m 29 and I’m having to live at home. Declared myself self employed and am currently earning nothing after a year. I’m fortunate in that I have my parents supporting me and investing in my business. Shouldn’t have to be like that though, I feel incredibly guilty and ashamed with all my friends and peers seemingly doing better than I am.
No pension or savings either. In my previous job I’d say 55% of my salary after tax went on rent and bills. Then ‘luxuries’, like you know, eating and having to have a car.
I’m also in education again as I need something to help keep my mind occupied and avoid a mental breakdown.
I can only echo what others have said. After years of unemployment I managed to gain temp jobs in my chosen field that don’t pay too badly, but because it’s London the money doesn’t go far. The result is financial russian roulette if (when) the jobs end. So it’s around 15% of wages on an expensive commute and it’s the same for most people where I work. People definitely put off what was once considered normal, like marriage and starting families.
It’s a draining and unsustainable experience (I’m writing this as another 6 month contract is nearing it’s end) that definitely affects your performance and mood. You just feel like you are treading water all the time with no ability to strike out in life – merely surviving. The worst part is the ignorant attitudes of many people who seem to blame the victims in this crazy hamster wheel we call London.
I am now 26 and have lived at home since graduating. For me it has been rent, I was pretty gobsmacked at how high rents were in my hometown. I went to uni in a much cheaper area so it was a pretty unpleasant surprise.
My fiancée and I are moving up North due to his job and we are now looking forward to the possibility of getting on the housing market. It’s very difficult for people who are tied to London.
The only way to help young workers move into their own places is rents that are a reasonable percentage of their take home pay (not over 50%!).
The other thing that sometimes happens is that parents who charge their adult children rent often become reliant on this money and reluctant to see their adult child move out, we talk about young adults being dependent on their parents but sometimes its the opposite.
I went to Lakeside (Essex) this Saturday to try and land a job at their recruitment fayre. Frankly it scared me when I realised just how many others were after work. Hundreds of people were queueing for the possibility of a Xmas temp job at Debenhams. It was like some kind of X factor audition where you had a couple of minutes to impress.
That is why I am still living at home. I went to university because I aspired to more than minimum wage retail — now getting that kind of job is the aspiration.
@Graduate- A4e (or other local Work Programme ‘providers’) or the Jobcentre probably mandated their ‘customers’ to attend. When there was a careers fair earlier this year at the main large venue in my local city, all ‘customers’ on my local A4e’s books were ordered to attend or be sanctioned. A4e knew which employers and training providers were going to be in attendance, but it wasn’t interested in whether or not they were relevant to their ‘customers.’
I’m 25 and living at home because rent is just too expensive. Up until a few months ago I had to claim JSA as my temporary contract job came to an end and I was struggling to find work. I hadn’t had a permanent job since graduating – I’ve been working in temp jobs or short term contract roles – and just haven’t had the money to be able to move out.
Something needs to be done about the lack of affordable housing and ridiculous rent prices or there will be more than half of 20-24 year olds living at home.
I’ve just submitted an application that demanded a 500 word essay in addition to the usual CV and cover letter. I’m actually starting to like the more onerous applications as I’m hoping they decrease the number of applicants. How many others are desperate enough to sit writing essays all day with no guarantee they will even be read?
I have a lot of sympathy with views expressed, I am bit (lot) older now, but had my first graduate job in London in the 90s, and was lucky that I could live at home, even thought it wasn’t the done thing at the time. The condition was that I saved money so that I could move out and eventually buy.
That taught me to live on the amount of money I would have after rent, and so when I did move out (after a couple of pay rises) it wasn’t as big a shock to the system.
I appreciate that any level of savings is difficult for a lot of graduates at the moment (not to mention the low interest rates), but every little really does help.
Hello,
Long time reader, first time commenter.
I have just turned 27 and I still live at home. I have a few mental health issues and asperger’s syndrome so I stayed at home during uni and got a maths degree. I have always wanted to move to England (I live in a city in Scotland, but my Dad is English) but the only replies I seem to get are from the jobs I apply to in my home city. To cap it all off, I can only seem to find temporary or short term contract minimum wage jobs where I live, mostly consisting of data entry.
The thing about moving out, is that I probably could do it, but since I seem to have trouble finding any sort of job, I would only move out if it was for a permanent or long term contract job.
People always say to me that I am better in any job than no job and that it will take my mind of things, but data entry with a maths degree really doesn’t do that because the job is so boring I think about things anyway. As it is I’ve spent so long not using my degree I’ve forgotten most of it.
So, yeah, that is me right now, unemployed, still living at home, brain turned to mush.
@PefectlyAnonymous – Welcome to the Hunger Games. When I graduated from University I had all these pure altruistic ideals. Eventually, overtime being lied to, abused, and exploited by employers.
I realized that nobody cares about me or what I want. I also realized that University is a fabricated environment that brainwashes (domestication) and over-trains us for a society that is only offering an ape like existence.
“I don’t want a nation of thinkers. I want a nation of workers.” John D. Rockefeller
I have learnt to separate what I am capable of from what I do to acquire money. You will never be challenged and your mathematical abilities will never be fully utilized.
One day I concluded that man does not deserve to be saved and abandon my morality completely.
The sole purpose of a job is to acquire money. A job is nothing more than a “means to an end”. Hence, why people keep their mouths shut in order to simply collect a paycheck
If an employer gives me any BS I”ll stab them in the back when they least expect it. I only care about myself and nobody else
We are here to survive and reproduce. Enjoy your 80 years of conscious existence on this planet.
Thanks
Chris Wells
I’m also much less idealistic than what I once was. Maybe that is a natural part of growing up anyway?
You realise what a dog-eat-dog world we live in when the ratio of jobseekers to jobs is 4:1 and what nearer 5:1 at the peak of the recession. I’ve reached the depressing conclusion that there isn’t an answer and the modern economy simply doesn’t have the same need for human labour as say my grandparent’s generation. Perhaps 2m unemployed is the new normal?
I’m similarly very cynical about the value of higher education. Given my time again I wish I had never set foot on a university campus. People I know who left education after sixth form are now in stable careers. I feel genuinely ashamed to have wasted thousands of pounds chasing a humanities degree. It made sense at the time and of course no one knew “The Great Recession” was about to happen but I feel a right mug for buying into it.
Of course you can’t change the past and all that but if only I knew what I know now!
I recently graduated – and yes, I too am stuck living back at the parents, figuring out my next step when the past few years have been a harsh dose of reality; it really can be a cruel world.. However, it’s only that way because the ‘top dogs’ have made it so.
@Chris I know exactly how you feel, however accepting the way it is and ‘abandoning morality’ and keeping quiet will only help fuel the system, the way things are, and ensure longevity of it. If everyone who had a good, altruistic conscience took this view, we’d have absolutely no hope of changing the situation.
@Graduate I agree with you. Universities now revolve solely around business; all they care about is getting money and have truly lost their credibility imho and have completely lost touch with the primary reason they were set up in the first place. It’s now merely an extension of the giant sausage factory that education on the whole has become.
Personally, I’ve refused to go through a single job application process since graduating. Screw anyone who demands that I spend hours, days having to try and prove my self worth to them on a measly bit of paper or questionnaire, only for them to merely skim it over and cast it aside. I don’t need somebody to decide if I’m good enough and choose where to place me – I’ll choose and make my own way instead.
My plan is to build a business, but with a vision to have the most equal and relaxed employment structure possible – it’s too depressing to think most of our precious time is spent dedicated to creating materialistic things that ultimately mean nothing but that we’re made to think is worth everything in order to ensure we keep slaving away.. What really matters is friends, family, and free time – time to do whatever the hell we want to do!!
@Graduate we may not be able to change the past but we can absolutely change the future
ps. apologies for all the angst…!
Well it doesn’t have to be this way. The masses could overthrow the government and the people in charge if they really wanted. Look at the student protests in 2010 and the riots in 2011 – could have brought the country to its knees if people really wanted it.
Hey Guys,
I just applied for a job through a recruitment company. I have an interview where they gave me an aptute test which I got 100%
They also said I had to set 5 additional tests online in order to be considered for this role. These were the following tests.
Word 2010 (30mins) Excel 2010 – Standard (30 min), Outlook 2010 – Standard, NZ Data Entry Test – Alphanumeric (F), Typing Test (F)
Here were my results Word 91%, Excel 100%, Outlook 92%, Tying Test 50wpm
This process took 2hours to complete and plus the 1 hour for the interview. Despite, my high scores and my qualifications and experience they still rejected me and said the job did not suit my skills and abilities
WTF??? What a complete waste of my time.
Thanks
Chris Wells
@Chris Wells – Sorry to hear you went through all that and didn’t get the job. I’m sure many graduates reading will empathise (and sympathise). Extremely frustrating to have done so well in the tests and then been told the job didn’t suit your skills and abilities. If anyone from a recruitment agency is reading, perhaps you can shed some light on what may have happened here?
Hi Tanya,
Thanks for your supporting comment. I am 26 years old now and I cannot help but reflect back on my life and wondered where did I go wrong? I did everything my parents, teachers, and society told me to do.
I will tell you about my situation. I have this soaring imagination to be a scientist and want this worlds knowledge for my own. My brain needs to be constantly stimulated or else I get bored and end up quitting my job based on dissatisfaction.
I actually love studying science and technology because it is the only subject that challenges me. In fact, I am doing a Bachelor of Accountancy, Bachelor of Arts (Mathematics & Economics), and a Bachelor of Electrical Engineering. I do all these courses online while working. I pay for these courses with my own money which is expensive. By the time I am 30 years old, I would have completed four bachelor degrees. Even after that, I will probably keep studying until I’m dead.
Google “Dr Philip Elliott” this guy was 31 years old UK citizen with a Phd in Physics. This guy was an “Einstein” who could do differential equations, multivariable calculus, and linear algebra. The only job he could find was in a call center where he probably worked with people who could not even do basic arithmetic. Philip committed suicide because of career knock backs. I sometimes ask myself am I going to end up like guy?
I also know the economy is rigged against us. Let me use math, logic, and reason to analyse the so called “American Dream”. You have to be a sleep in order to believe it. You are suppose to get into 50 -100k worth of debt + interest to get a degree in order to apply for a job that does not exist. Than you are suppose to get married and have 3 kids, buy a house with an overinflated price worth $500,000+interest and then put your 3 kids through college and then save for retirement? This is mathematically impossible without taking on enormous amount of debt, effectively making you a slave to the banks. F**k the baby boomer generation who sit up this corrupt system
So, the question I ask myself is “what do I do with my life?” I believe the new dream is to have no debt (like me), don’t buy a house, don’t have kids, and find a job you enjoy doing and live it up.
Thanks
Chris Wells
I’m 26 and I live at home. It doesn’t bother me at all – in fact I’m comfortable here (maybe too comfortable) and it enables me to save money. I will start getting worried if I’m approaching 30 and still in the same situation. With the exception of the super-confident or people who have connections, I think the twenties are a difficult period for most people. If living at home provides some stability then I see nothing wrong with it.
Yes, but Kate Middleton is having a baby! And ex-Eton PR man David Cameron is on £150K per year in Downing Street. And property prices keep rising. Wave your flags! Celebrate! Rule Britannia.
@Anon @Graduate I agree with you both. Universities just churn out graduates which has generated an abundance of us and not that many jobs!
I went to a good university, I speak two other languages fluently, I have two years professional experience including working abroad and I’ve just been offered a job interview in London paying a salary of £20,000! I don’t understand how companies can pay such a low wage in central London with a couple of years work experience. This is the reason why I still live with my parents in Manchester!
When you look at job specifications these days, companies are asking so much more of recent graduates. By the time you gain all the relevant skills required for the job, it will have been many years since graduating and they still only pay very little!
With price of renting in London so high and starting wages so little, I think I’ll be staying in Manchester with my parents!
@ wise choice Amy. In fact, I can tell you that in my field i.e. Investment Banking, most Back Office/Operations/Project Management functions are being relocated up-north to reap from lower labour costs whilst offshoring to India positions which do not require any value added at all (Static Data etc.). In the years to come, only Front-Office roles will remain in London for those on comfortable salaries circa £100K a year.
You cannot live in London on £20K, the majority of my colleagues commute from as far as Brighton and Reading daily!
Do you really work in investment banking? Is it true that some 21 years olds from target unis are on huge wages straight out of graduation?
@ Sam. Yes, I do, but in a Project Management role/function. Investment Banking is a vast area. Only very few are on so-called ‘huge wages’ mostly in M&A i.e. Mergers & Acquisitions and Structured/Proprietary Trading. Recruited mostly from Europe at targeted institutions where the norm is a master’s degree and average age is 23, not 21. The rest (not on Graduate Management Programmes) work in support roles which, as I said in my previous post, are being onshored/offshored from London to India and Northern England. To give you some context, I am 41 and on £47.5k, started on £26K in 2004 in London. And still rent in North London.
In the UK, forget about ex-polys, including Russell Group Universities if you have not a strong scientific background, perfect academic records etc, it will not happen. This is why to pay £9K a year (plus cost of living) for a history/English/classics/politics degree at an ex-poly or elsewhere is farcical! Are people that gullible? Universities are businesses, nothing more. With hindsight, I should never have bothered, started on the same par as a school leaver with A’Levels who had 3 years work experience under his belt!
Thanks for the reply Nicolas. I’m doing physics at Royal Holloway, do you think that is a decent combination for graduate jobs? Luckily I enjoy my degree so it hasn’t been a complete waste of time. Unfortunately I’m a few years older than most undergraduates.
For M&A, the answer is no. In the UK, Oxbridge and LSE dominates. IBs can pick and choose. HEC, ESSEC in France, Bocconni in Italy, Ivy League institutions in the US, you’re competing globally. The graduate management stage will see you out. Royal Holloway is just not in that league. Sorry but that’s the bare truth.
For Structured/Proprietary Trading the answer is also no, unless (1) you pursue a masters @ Oxbridge/LSE/Imperial in Financial Maths, have brilliant programming skills (C++ etc.) AND(2) manage to get a place on a graduate management programme. It always comes down to the graduate management programme. It did for me 15 years ago and I had a masters from Warwick.
For support functions, i.e. settlement/back-office/middle-office roles etc, basically what’s left over after graduate management programmes have taken the top candidates, the answer is yes but you will be treated on the same par as non-graduates on £20K per annum. Plus, bear in mind these jobs are being offshored fast to India, notably Bangalore.
Good job I don’t want to work in finance then 😀
I find it kind of hilarious how they filter candidates by their university. There are world leading researchers in the physics department here.. one of them was a mentor to Andrei Geim and Novoselov. If the city thinks Royal Holloway graduates are dumb, then they are not an employer I would want to work for.
Nicolas how do you rate these unis for IB: Cardiff, surrey, kent?
Thank you
@ James, these are mid-range, but will not matter for IB support roles. However, accept to begin on £20K in London with non-graduates (notably the older staff, some with 1 or 2 GCSEs but have been processing transactions for years).
@ James Plus forgot to mention, public schools dominate. Sad but true. I went to a grammar school, most of my colleagues have been educated the expensive way….
Thanks for the reply Nicolas. Why do the banks only recruit from the likes of LSE and Oxbridge for the top jobs? The best I can hope for is to gain my undergraduate degree at York but it is in a similar vain to the others I posted.
That is what they want. No time to waste with Global recruitment (See earlier post). Guarantee of impeccable A’level results and quality of candidates. Plus, a higher proportion have attended public schools (Westminster etc.) which adds the ‘class factor’ to the application. This is why it’s meaningless(and humiliating) to go to university these days if you end up doing the same job as a non-graduate (usually older) with 1-2 GCSEs. I have been there and I graduated from Keele and Warwick with average A’Levels.
Maybe this is the situation with finance and the city, but surely it isn’t as elitist every where else? Kind of depressing anyway.
I’m sick of seeing jobs that demand a driving license and access to a car. I have a license, by there’s absolutely no way I can afford the insurance as a new driver. Yet the government are doing absolutely nothing to stop these car insurance firms from ripping people off (and that’s an understatement). I got a quote for £8k because I’m unemployed… how am I supposed to pay that seriously if I’m on JSA? The government need to cap insurance prices so people desperate to get back into work like me can do. My home town is pretty crap for jobs so which is why I’m looking further afield. But I really can’t afford that