The Job Market and Career Path of Young People in the U.K

UNIVERSITY OF GOCE DELCHEV
Faculty of philology

Paperwork on the subject:
Contemporary English Language 1 on topic:

The job market and career path of young people in the UK

Mentor: Prepared by:
Marija Krsteva Nikola Stanishkov, ID no.161453 Ivica Trajchov, ID no.161252

December, 2012

Content

Abstract………………………………………………………….page 3
Introduction……………………………………………………...page 4
The job market of young people abroad…………………….page 5
Unemployment of young people in the UK…………….…...page 7
Conclusion………………………………………………………page 9
References……………………………………………….……page 10

Abstract

The youth nowadays is getting smarter and smarter, thanks to the technology: computers, TV, social networks etc. But there is a big issue with the job market. Every teenager after graduating struggles for employment either continues their education on higher level universities. Every other young person wants to follow their career path, but that is quite impossible nowadays, because the chances for employment in a person’s wanted job position are very rare. We are going to talk about the job market of young people abroad, also specifically about students in the United Kingdom.

Key words: 1. Youth employment 2. Education of young people 3. Job positions

Introduction

The transition of young people into work marks a critical period in the life cycle. It signifies a crucial stage of independence, the application of academic learning, and social and economic productivity, as well as sets the stage for an individual’s potential in terms of earning capacity, job options and the possibility of advancement.
Across regions, young people are disproportionately affected by unemployment, underemployment, vulnerable employment and working poverty. Even during periods of economic growth, many economies have been unable to absorb large youth populations into the labor market. In recent years, however, the global financial and economic crisis has further hit young people particularly hard in the developed world.

The job market of young people abroad

Millions of young people all over the world are marching in the streets of their respective cities demanding change in the way the system is treating them. These are not situations coming out of the blue. It has been decades in the making.
What young people today are facing – the frightening lack of prospects for meaningful employment and therefore a meaningful work life with living wages – began at the turn of the last century. We clearly know, when the First World War didn’t solve the tension building between European dynasties, they went forward into the Second World War. Once that ended, as nature does, it tried to equalize the loss of human life with what has come to be known as the baby boom.
Flash forward and we find that we are a generation of young people who have had the benefit of higher education in numbers greater than previously recorded; a highly educated group who have been told that a university education was a guarantee to a good life, but who in reality have little chance for that to happen. When our grandparents left high school they could start at a company and work their way up, if they had that kind of ambition. Now those grandparents are being told that they will have to work longer because the tax base cannot afford to support them. Older people are staying in the workforce longer leaving less room for the younger ones to enter.
More people are entering the workforce with university degrees but the new work world is looking for hard skills. We need more engineers, for example. Added to that, the Chinese workforce is working with much lower wage expectations than young people here are prepared to accept.

As a result, manufacturers have no compunction about setting up their plants in China. And the Chinese government continues to maintain an artificially low value on their currency, making it ever more attractive for business to hire workers there. The many threads now pulled together have created the current situation.
Today’s numbers – 75 million young people, or two out of every five, are unemployed globally according to the International Labor Organization – give a better sense of their desperation. For example, in Canada, the unemployment rate for those15 to 24 is more than 14 per cent, which is nearly double that of the general population. The unemployment rate among Black youth runs much higher. Or, looking at Montreal where student protests have created upheaval in the past three months, it was in fact minority youth who were at the forefront of the early protests. This set of circumstances will precipitate an entrenched underclass of highly educated people with very poor prospects for the future. In particular, it will be a racialized underclass.
Many students have just graduated from university and are hoping to begin the next chapter of their lives equipped with the standard that society has mapped out as a milestone on the road to success. But the world outside the gates of the university holds a harsh reality; harsher yet, if one is a university-educated member of a so-called visible minority group.
What those respected speakers at convocation ceremonies need to be telling young people is that in order to make it in today’s world they will have to band together in a spirit of entrepreneurship to create their own new economy, because emailing résumés is not going to work

The unemployment of young people in the UK

The effect of the recession and downturn in the UK has been particularly felt by young people in the labor market. 929,000 people aged 16-24 were unemployed in December-February 2010, equivalent to 13% of the whole age group and a rise of 220,000 compared to three years ago. Although there have been significant rises across all age groups, young people make up 38% of the 2.5 million people of working age who are unemployed.
Recessions can have a stronger effect on the employment of young people than others:
Employers may reduce or freeze recruitment. Opportunities for new entrants to the labor market may therefore be disproportionately reduced.
It may be easier and cheaper to make less experienced employees redundant. Employers may also be more inclined to retain more experienced and trained employees in whom they have invested more. Younger employees may therefore be more likely to lose their jobs.
Firms retained more employees than many economists expected during the recession. However, this could mean that young people lose out in the long run, with firms slow to build up staffing levels during the recovery.
The youth unemployment rate now exceeds that recorded after the end of the last recession, although in terms of absolute numbers it is at about the same level. Historically, the youth unemployment rate has been higher than the working age rate, although they have followed the same broad trend. However, the gap between the two has been increasing since 2004, in particular over the last two years.

Underlying this story of rising youth unemployment is a more complex picture of falling employment, rising unemployment and rising economic inactivity (to complicate matters, students are also classified as either employed, unemployed or inactive, and education participation has been rising).
Unemployment rates exclude those who choose to become inactive in the labor market: 2.7 million people aged 16-24 are inactive, 33% of the totals for all ages. Inactivity has fallen for the working age population overall over the last three years but risen for 16-24 year olds. However, 1.9 million of the 2.7 million inactive 16-24s are in full time education.
Impact of youth unemployment
Persistent and growing youth unemployment is recognized as a problem with long-term risks. Apart from the time spent in lower wage employment or on state support, unemployment in youth can have longer term effects such as wage scarring that can persist long into adult life, as well as wider societal problems.
The last Government implemented a package of measures to address rising youth unemployment called the Young Person’s Guarantee, although it was not fully introduced until January 2010 and it is therefore too early to fully judge its effectiveness. It promised 18-24 year olds who have been claiming Jobseeker’s Allowance for six months a job, training or work experience. It was scheduled to run until March 2012.
The rise in youth unemployment, as well as working age unemployment, has stabilized since mid-2009, perhaps suggesting that the worst may be over. However, those that have left the labor market will return at some stage, meaning the problem may just have been postponed. The threat of a “jobless” or slow recovery only adds to the concerns about the longer term impact on young people, with youth unemployment levels likely to be closely monitored for several years to come.

Conclusion

The reason for the unemployment of young people in any nation is the fact that they are not prioritized by their Government. Youth are to be seen as leaders of today in any nation in order to be able to fully address the issues of development and unemployment. But instead they have always been referred to 'As the future leaders of tomorrow '. With this, youths will not be able to fully participate in designing programmes to address the unemployment rates in their countries. The solution to this problem will only be the young people themselves, because they know their problems and, if allowed to discuss them frankly in the presence of those concerned, society will appreciate them and look out for adequate solutions.

References: 1. www.wikipedia.org 2. http://www.thevindicator.com/news/article_95bc6336-3fcd-11e2-a1ee-001a4bcf887a.html 3. http://www.ilo.org/empelm/units/employment-trends/facet/lang--en/index.htm

References: 1. www.wikipedia.org 2. http://www.thevindicator.com/news/article_95bc6336-3fcd-11e2-a1ee-001a4bcf887a.html 3. http://www.ilo.org/empelm/units/employment-trends/facet/lang--en/index.htm