There seems to be more evidence that the distribution of work between the young and the rest of the population continues to get more unequal. I wrote about this in an article called 'Sharing the Work Around' on 14 June, observing how difficult it seemed for many young people to break into decent employment, or any employment at all, and again on 20 July highlighting a report in 'Lessons from Northern Europe for the UK on Youth Unemployment'. This looked at reasons why Germany and Scandinavian countries have lower levels of youth unemployment as a result of more commitment and better pathways from education to work.
Now I have come across two further (much shorter) reports, like the last one on the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development website, that shows that more than a fifth of recent graduates are working part-time, working largely in sales and customer services jobs - probably not what they studied for. It also says that overall only 63% have actually got a job. Another article reports that staff aged 16-29 faced a 10 per cent wage fall from 2003 to 2011 and that their wages fell significantly in real terms compared to pay for the rest of the workforce, prompting fears for the health of the economy. Gavin Kelly of the Resolution Foundation that carried out the research said, “Falling demand in key sectors may well have put downward pressure on young people’s wages as well as on employment levels. On top of this, it’s also likely to have eroded opportunities for career progression – with fewer ladders and more snakes – making it harder to get a promotion or an upward move to a new job (which may well affect earnings mobility over the longer term).”
The Church make a substantial investment in young people through the education system; this suggests it needs to continue that concern when they leave education and encounter an increasingly harsh world.
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