Home—Blog—We should be ashamed of youth unemployment in the UK
Oct 13, 2011, 12:48
Posted byMerryn Somerset Webb
Comments (31)
Mostly we tend to think of entrepreneurs as a good thing. They drive growth, innovate, employ people and move us all forward. But is a forced entrepreneur as good as a voluntary entrepreneur?
A press release just out from peopleperhour.com is pleased to announce that a huge number of young people are setting up their own businesses and so have signed up to the site (freelancers use it to sell their time by the hour). 89% more are signed up this year than last year. Good news indeed, you might think. You'd be wrong. Why?
Two reasons. First because "most" of the new freelancers "admit that the tough jobs market" has forced them into it. In this week's Moneyweek magazine I interview Luke Johnson. (If you're not already a subscriber, get your first three copies free here.)
We run through the characteristics common to successful entrepreneurs. They include being optimistic, persistent, maverick and the like. They don't usually include being desperate (although if you have the other characteristics it might help).
The fact that you can't get a job and so are forced to hawk what skills you do have around on the internet doesn't make you an innovative wealth creator. More often than not I would guess it makes you one of the semi-hidden unemployed.
Lead indicators for Britain's economy
The second problem is this: peopleperhour describes the people who sign up to its site as "freelance consultants". And if there is anything we really don't need too many more of it is these.
Run your eye down the list of services on offer and you will see that they are all actual services – accounting and legal stuff; web design stuff; fundraising and sales stuff; and an awful lot of marketing. That's all fine. But it isn't enough. A dependence on the circularity that is the services sector is part of what got us into the trouble we are in now.
We should of course be pleased that our young are having a go at making a living but, much more that, we should be ashamed of the fact that, in part thanks to their lousy educations (one of the miserable unemployed youths highlighted in the Times today had a degree in music and media management for god's sake) and to our employment-inhibiting regulatory environment, this is how they have to do it.
Johnson wrote a piece in the FT yesterday calling for a bonfire of red tape and a tax holiday for fast-growing start ups. If we want get our youth out of the dead end that is freelance consultancy and into proper jobs we are going have to do that and more.
Why just start ups? Maybe we owe it to the youth we have so let down with our idiotic credit bubble and bust; our failed education policies; and our woefully ill-balanced economy to introduce some kind of special treatment for all fast-growing employers whenever they were founded.
That might, as Johnson says, not seem particularly fair to the plodders in the corporate world. But having youth unemployment at 21% isn't exactly fair either.
Published in Blog More articles by Merryn Somerset Webb
By Merryn Somerset Webb, May 22, 2012
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By James McKeigue, May 19, 2012
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(13 October 2011, 01:23PM) Complain about this comment
one of the miserable unemployed youths highlighted in the Times today had a degree in music and media management for god's sakeand your degree is in History and Economics, why is History any more useful than music. Why is Economics more useful than Media Management. Music and the Media are both be productive. Indeed, it would seem that you work in the latter.I think one of the problems is the industry isn't involved enough in education to ensure they get the right amount of graduates trained in what they need. However, you have thought they would train them if this was really the case, so it may just be an over supply of labour.
(13 October 2011, 02:46PM) Complain about this comment
What seem's now to be showing up in the unemployment stats is the 'youth' that were encouraged into higher education 5-6 years ago.Is it mere coincidence that 'investment' in higher education 5-6 years ago deferred increases in unemployment figures that would have otherwise shown up at that time ?Could that 'investment' in higher education now be considered a mal-investment bubble that has burst and the physical and human 'assets' that it produced are in need of a write-down (if not a haircut) ?Throw in today's youth being discouraged from attending higher university due to fees and...bang bang - double youth unemployment. Employment prospects are not going to look good for the teen-twenties for the next decade or more.
(13 October 2011, 03:53PM) Complain about this comment
The big problem is "Job Blocking", as a society why do we allow people in their 70th and even 80th years to carry on working, sorry they have had their chance, time to more over and give the next generation the same opportunities they had. Apples Steve Job was correct when he said death is a wonderful thing it allows the old to be replaced with the young or words to that effect.
(13 October 2011, 04:13PM) Complain about this comment
@ no.1 Mike.The reason that 'music and media management' is a waste of time and effort is specifically that music does not much relate to any work in business, commerce or industry while media is not an academic subject and therefore of no academic merit.Music is a perfectly valid academic subject and honourable pursuit in its own right. Media is a perfectly valid line of work. In the former there are not many paying jobs unless you are a successful performer. For the latter you would be better having knowledge of some other actual subject, perhaps languages, economics or history for example, as opposed to a pseudo academic approach to 'media management' or any other management - MBAs take note.
(13 October 2011, 04:15PM) Complain about this comment
The UK education system is a national embarrassment of the highest order. Consecutive Departments for Education have been sold a pup by one 'educationalist' after another, all of whom are trained in more or less the same line of post modern relative value thinking with a worn out liberal agenda. Anyone and everyone that has addressed the issue over the last twenty years or so and had the temerity to call a spade a spade knew it and said so from the beginning. The system has now had time to work through a whole generation of kids and they are the one's who are paying the price. Sadly they are poorly educated and that is how they will remain. That is part one of the problem.
(13 October 2011, 04:16PM) Complain about this comment
Part two of the problem is that the same system has not only imparted a poor academic education but also a empty values and odd expectations, as demonstrated by another graduate reported in today's Times had a Masters degree in Chinese and is allegedly fluent in both the language and culture. However, she bewails the fact that to get a job using her skills she'll have to leave Glasgow and go to London. Never mind London, at her age and stage in life if she had any get up and go she should be looking for a job in China.
(13 October 2011, 04:24PM) Complain about this comment
@ No. 3 Steve T.The problem is very definitely not 'job blocking'.There are numerous obvious reasons why this is an invalid argument even if the premise was true.
(13 October 2011, 04:32PM) Complain about this comment
I thought the free market worked so that the best person at the lowest marginal cost got the job. Older people are often more expensive on salary scales , but most over 60's pay no Nics.The tragedy is that 30 years ago we were all promised progress. Technology would shorten to working week to 3 or 4 days and to 25 or 30 hours. Yet all that happened was a productivity bonus usurped by the fatcats at the top, and everyone else actually works harder.Virtually all gains made in the past 30 years have been shared out by the top 10%(mainly the top1%) and youth unemployment is just a symptom of their refusal to share the cake fairly.We could all do our bit by going to a 4 day week, creating enough work for the young,but that is making ordinary folk suffer again,while the fatcats pile up cash in mountains and live like Renaissance Kings.
(13 October 2011, 06:23PM) Complain about this comment
The realityis that the UK has become riddled with 'Parasites' (rich, poor & intermediate), paid for by the rest and ultimately making UKplc a lot less competitive in the World. Non-'Parasites' have to seek remuneration levels beyond what they would need if there were not the 'Parasites' leeching off of them, right, left and centre.And now a lot of jobs have gone abroad.Whilever we are encumbered with all of these 'Parasites' employment prospects in the UK will go down, down, down.I blame the example set by Boris's 'fat cats at the top'. Not before they undergo a paradigm shift in morality will the rest of the 'Parasites' begin to cease to remain as such; all of them 'killing the host' in the meantime. Essentially, the greater the gap between the richest and the rest the greater unemployment (particularly at the younger end) will be. The 'Parasites' are 'killing jobs' by making UKplc more uncompetitive. But it's the fatcats who should be thoroughly ashamed.
(13 October 2011, 06:24PM) Complain about this comment
@DickyUK Music industry was worth £3.8bn in 2010. It is an industry in itself, Dick!Media exports were £17.3bn in 2008 (4.1% of all goods and services exported). I take it you can see that these are important industries. Your logic is also flawed, would you like to review or should I point the rest out to you. Were educated in the UK?For the record
(13 October 2011, 06:27PM) Complain about this comment
The young always pay disproportionately in times of recession. Those in positions of responsibility such as the chancellor and the MPC have tunnel vision when it comes to eroding debt through inflation and are offering up the young as sacrificial lambs in the process, from educational opportunities to job prospects to housing. They talk of stimulating the economy rather than managing the slowdown. If King, at the MPC, were serious about this supposed growth, the £75bn he just pilfered from workers and savers would be far better spent on start outs for these young entrepreneurs than the banks, who are directly responsible for the disadvantage this crop of youngsters currently face.
(13 October 2011, 09:14PM) Complain about this comment
@ Mike.You have missed the point entirely.
(14 October 2011, 06:57AM) Complain about this comment
Mike, apologies for my misreading of the degree title as 'Music WITH Media Management', and hey, under the modern degree system why not music with media management?My point about media management not being an academic subject and therefore not suitable for degree qualification holds for music AND media management. Management is not an academic subject no matter what some would like you to believe. Therefore a degree in it or any supposed sub set of it is a worthless piece of paper.On the bright side people already having such degrees might find that they are more in demand by whoever might see merit in their studies since they will become a rarer commodity now that people have to pay for their studies. Such degrees will doubtless soon disappear entirely.
(14 October 2011, 10:07AM) Complain about this comment
@DickyJim:Music is clearly an academic subject. Media Studies probably isn't.The discussion isn't whether these are academic subjects or not but whether three years spent studying them as uses in the business world.Quite frankly I would have thought a music degree was useful for someone working at EMI or Sony. And certainly as useful as Eng Lit or History."Golf Course Management" (cue giggles) is probably actually much sought after by the good folks up in St Andrews.
(14 October 2011, 10:47AM) Complain about this comment
Its snobbery to classify one area as worthy and dismiss another area as unworthy. I expect in the mid 1970s a great deal of people thought Steve Jobs was wasting his time tinkering around with his machines. The whole point of being educated is to open up more opportunities to choose from and try to make a living doing something you enjoy doing. I don't believe the education teenagers receive now is substandard to what went on years ago, they do course work which keeps them busy all year round and they rely less on cramming! Unfortunately for them, it looks like they will be asked to take on the burden of our old age without getting the benefit of our help to enable them get a really good start after they leave school or university.
(14 October 2011, 11:14AM) Complain about this comment
It's a case of chickens coming home to roost I'm afraid Merryn. Working for a small but rapidly expanding technology company we have real problems in recruiting intelligent, talented, numerate, literate... young British citizens. It's a real problem. There just aren't that many of them out there. Recruiting from asia or the far-east however, and it's a completely different story. Believe me, no one is happy with this situation. but smaller companies working in a rapidly changing and growing market simply don't have that much time to devote to training youngsters up to scratch. Just keeping pace is stressful enough. I think in this case the blame can be levelled squarely at the door of successive governments (going back decades), and the cultural shift in British society. Do people want good wholesome nourishing work that adds value ? Or do they simply want stress free money ?
(14 October 2011, 11:50AM) Complain about this comment
Education education ...I have a PhD and I earn peanuts. Honest.Now remind, what University degree did Steve Jobs, Bill Gates, Alan Sugar, Bill Branson, ... get?
(14 October 2011, 11:59AM) Complain about this comment
@Alberto.Good point. And I can believe you earn peanuts. A PhD is worth little unless it is backed up with something useful. Many people who work in industry can testify to that.I don't think Alan Sugar is a good example though. He has a talent for acquiring money and other peoples companies, but I seriously doubt that he has a creative gene in his body.p.s. Steve Jobs was a marketing genius. Steve Wozniak was the creative genius. No wozniak, no Apple.
(14 October 2011, 12:38PM) Complain about this comment
Alberto,"And I can believe you earn peanuts. A PhD is worth little unless it is backed up with something useful."Apologies, that didn't read too well, and that's not what I mean't. You may well be a genius for all I know, but happen to be working in a highly competitive research market such as pharmaceuticals, or chemical engineering. But what I can say, from experience, is that most PhD's that you come across in the electronics/silicon/software sectors aren't worth a bucket of warm spit.
(15 October 2011, 11:48AM) Complain about this comment
The problem is we don't seem to educate people well enough inthe basics or science, maths, technology. When we do producecreative genius we don't seem to value them enough and off theygo. This seems to happen whether people are creative in thearts of science side.And unfortunately with few exceptions, stateeducation apart from the few remaining grammar schools seems to be crap. I am not sure if that is mainly an intelligence thing oris down to respect and discipline (or lack of). But unless we wantto see all business going to China/Far East/India we had better do something about it. We should also be limiting immigration fromEurope.... What a bloody mess. One thing for sure - the youngare not responsible for this sorry state of affairs but seem to bepaying for it.
(15 October 2011, 02:50PM) Complain about this comment
Its been mentioned before but I would say again we need to look at our wealth creating industries, these tend to be broadly things like manufacturing, engineering, science... to make these industries competitive and drive them forward you need people who are excellent in terms of the substance- when you have this you need you facilitate further with good economics, management, strategy, marketing. When these industries are performing well the wealth created can allow other areas to thrive that improve our standard of living and make life more enjoyable such as music, arts, literature. Although I’m sure this is a bit of an oversimplification and you could mention other industries.
(15 October 2011, 02:51PM) Complain about this comment
So I think that we need more of those who have an aptitude for the substance behind those wealth creating industries properly educated in that substance (probably requiring cultural and structural change), and then we build around that. I appreciate everyone has different strengths and ideally you want to develop everyone in what they are best at, but I think many who could be good scientists, engineers etc. don’t go down that route for various reasons. I agree with DickyJim that there seem to be too great a proportion of courses that are based on developing facilitating or periphery skills rather than substance.
(17 October 2011, 09:39AM) Complain about this comment
I'm not sure what peoplebythekg has to do with setting up your own business? It sounds more like an online temping agency.And why do we say it's a shame that 1000000 of our youth are unemployed? The impact on the individual is the same, there's just more of them feeling rejected. It might even be better for the individual because it's not their fault\failings that have put them in this position. FWIW My background; left skool 1981, 6 years to get a 'proper' job, spent most of my time temping.So this isn't a new phenomenon, things will get better. Employers know it's tough ATM, so when the job market does improve they'll know why the person was unemployed for so long..
(17 October 2011, 10:09AM) Complain about this comment
Sorry I forgot to add..And is it right for those of us with a job to undermine the confidence of those who are unemployed by attacking their qualifications? There are no jobs, so the qualifications people have are immaterial. If people say that you should have done, x, y or z, this would only mean there would be more unemployed people with qualifications in x, y or z.
(17 October 2011, 11:14AM) Complain about this comment
My stepson has just started school in the UK. He arrived here from China in August with a place at the local school. Two things are noteworthy:We contacted the school ahead of term, the administrators were all on holiday at what is potentialyl the busiest time of year - are hte schools run for the benefit of the child or the benefit of the adults working there?Second thing, after his delayed start (third week in term finally admitted), the children in maths are being taught things he learned two years ago, he's 14 they are learning 12 year old stuff.The much lauded "investment" in education was cynical vote buying - no surprise there then.
(17 October 2011, 01:04PM) Complain about this comment
Which has a greater effect on employment. 'Job blocking' or the loss in economic activity caused by retirement? Those in employment after 65 are earning money that they can then spend in the economy which creates more jobs. Once they stop working they have to live off the investments they made while they were working and hence contribute nothing more. If everyone works as long as possible, then there is more wealth for everyone.
(17 October 2011, 06:58PM) Complain about this comment
#25 . Well if you and the stepson don't like it there is always the option to "arrive " back in China. I note some Chinese towns are now building sewers. Something we did here 165 years ago.
(18 October 2011, 05:27PM) Complain about this comment
jobs going abroad +job seekers (and 'getters!!) from abroad coming here-+slow down in UK /world economy+Vital cut backs which cut jobs+'students' some of whom should have been encouraged to avoid 'Uni'Significant numbers who simply will not be employed due to lack of education presentation and attitudeSignificant numbers who do not want to workequals a lot of youth unemployment.!!Our economy will not create enough vacancies to provide for the 100,000s who will arrive each year seeking work PLUs domestic needs for many yrs to come and please this is not an anti foreign rant far from it but look who took the majority of the last million or so vacancies- 'domestic' employees on the Olympics???Take BMW - 56 Nationalities--combined exceed local labourNot an anti foreigner rant but a fact as to the number of jobs we willl need to produce in the (Not near) future when our economy MAY get under way,,,
(18 October 2011, 07:00PM) Complain about this comment
The argument is, perhaps, relative. The hard core cant do/wont do element - which has naturally and inexorably become entrenched in our welfare centred new society -will serve as an inexorable drag factor on the challenges which our established economies will surely face in the coming new world order. Its as though we have all forgotten that it took two hundred years to build the very social welfare system that, sadly, will be become exhausted within fifty years.
(19 October 2011, 03:28PM) Complain about this comment
I'm the community manager at PeoplePerHour and am happy to help anyone who has further queries on this article if they visit our forum at www.peopleperhour.com/forumBy the way, you don't mention it in your article but we also have a lot of freelance copywriters and journalists, who we value along with other sectors. Freelancing isn't for everyone but for those it suits or just starting out we do our best to help them.
(25 October 2011, 09:43AM) Complain about this comment
With no discipline in schools that are over crowded with kids having to learn 10 diverse languages to ensure they are culturally trained, what else do you expect? Couple that with a society that expects everything for nothing and you have a ready mixed recipe for the very disaster unfolding now.What in 10-20 years when all the foreigners that have swamped the UK turn out their kids into the jobs market?I cannot see this situation getting any better anytime soon. God bless the EUSSR, T Blair and G Brown for putting our economy and country in a straight jacket it will never escape from!The Peoplhour site seems like a good idea but below the surface as Merryn says, it isn't really. It's not going to make any real jobs a all.
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