Inside Youth Unemployment: by An Unemployed Youth.

As a recent graduate now unemployed, I find myself being told constantly that I do not have the expertise or experience to do the jobs for which I am applying. Thank god then, for the current crisis of rising unemployment among young people and graduates, for it is only here where i find myself able to be both expert and experience! What then, is my expert and insiders view of this current burning political issue? Why can young people not get jobs? Based on my less than scientific sample size of one (i.e. me), these are the possibilities:

1. Saturated job market:

The general economy is, of course, going down the toilet. This means a fair few older people have lost their jobs, and are applying for the same vacancies as those fresh out of school/college/university. In a boom time, graduates and young people have less competition from experiened workers, so are more likely to get that elusive first job. Now, we are coming up against older folk with more experience, better qualifications, and proven ability. The company's doing the hiring are much less keen to take a gamble on an unproved yoof given the unpredictable economic climate, if indeed they are hiring at all!

2. High expectations:

This may only apply to graduates, or indeed only to myself and some of the people I know. We are of a generation who were brought up in relative comfort. Our parents were reasonably successful, and there wasn't an overwhelming worry about money. Consequently, we have tended to, and been encouraged to, pursue careers and courses of study which are enjoyable and satisfying, not just financially rewarding. We've also had access to great education. We want fulfillment from our profession, and not just something to pay the bills. So there is a huge pool of intelligent, balanced individuals all fighting for a small number of interesting and rewarding jobs, where in previous generations many would have taken anything. That the 'anything that pays the bills' category is mainly call centre work may be a factor in keeping the fussy unemployed out of work.

3. Over-qualified, but under-experienced:

I think this is really the major obstacle. I have applied for tons of jobs in offices, doing general dogsbody admin. The requirements are ability to do filing, ability to type and use Microsoft Office, and other fairly simple skills. I have these skills. Its hard to do a degree without having them. But my degree (in International Relations & Politics) doesn't show this so much as my ability to accurately analyse how the organisational dynamics of government has affected immigration disourse or how the concept of Undecidability can be used to build constructive policy within post-modern theory. I got a first for both of them, but employers quite frankly don't give a shit, and why should they? Those are qualifications for a senior policy advisor, not a menial desk clerk. I'm qualified for the job i'll have in twenty years.

Furthermore, there isn't much of a structure for converting these skills into tradeable qualities. When i went to the job centree and inquired into their training schemes to give me something to put on my CV, the and nothing. The courses they offer are how to write a CV, how to search for jobs on the internet, how to tie your shoelaces etc. Nothing to help me stand out.


What links all these points is a looming chasm between what the world was meant to look like and how it actually looks. Kids have been educated and trained for a burgeoning international economy where highly trained individuals are in great demand for satisfying, important jobs. Instead, we have an inward looking, shrinking economy where no one wants to take risks and opportunities are scarce. We, the yoof, are the ones caught in the middle as this chasm opens, and if we're not careful, we're not going to be able to climb out.