A lack of jobs for young Brits impacts on older generations
Wednesday, 10, Mar 2010 12:00
For years now, we have been warned that the current lack of jobs for young people in Britain will result in a 'Lost Generation', but it seems as if people aged 16 to 30 are not the only ones who are suffering.
A new YouGov poll conducted for investment company Scottish Widows has revealed that more than a third of young people are borrowing money from their parents to service their daily living costs.
Around 35% of the 5,349 people surveyed had relied on their parents' financial support in order to pay rent, buy food and cover other day-to-day living expenses, reports Channel 4 News.
Furthermore, 38% of these young people had asked their parents to help them pay off their debts. Many university and college leavers have student loans which they cannot service themselves due to the severe shortage of graduate jobs in the UK.
Many young people work for free
While more organisations are hiring degree-holders this year compared with 2009, the sheer number of graduates who have been unemployed since 2008 has rendered the competition for jobs fiercer than ever.
Because they have such a big pool of talented candidates to choose from, most employers are now giving preference to jobseekers who have some work experience on their CVs.
Due to the scarcity of paid positions, however, most of this work experience comes from unpaid internships, which are only suitable for financially secure graduates. Those who cannot afford to get into debt or cannot access funds from the Bank of Mum and Dad are excluded
Companies which currently offer unpaid internships should seriously think about paying at least some of their interns' expenses. They'll not only be benefiting young people, but these individuals' parents, too.
Parents are dipping into their savings
According to the YouGov study, eight out of 10 parents who have been asked to keep their adult children or grandchildren afloat have had to dip into their savings. Many expressed concern that they would never be able to top up their accounts again.
The amounts that parents are lending are larger than expected. Of the 47% of parents who had given money to their offspring, the average handout was £13,660. And more than 50% of these parents said they would probably need to help their children out a second or third time.
According to Iain McGowan, a savings expert at Scottish Widows, many parents can ill afford to hand out money to their children, often because they, too, have lost their jobs or amassed debts of their own.
"This means that fewer parents can afford to give or loan money, while those who can are being asked to provide more."
Clearly, something needs to be done in order to get young Britain back on its feet. What is required is a huge shift in mindset from both the government and the private sector.
The authorities need to come up with new ways of supporting young people on limited public funds, while employers need to reduce their reliance unpaid interns and consider offering more on-the-job training opportunities instead so that more candidates have access to paid work, not only those whose parents can afford to support them.