The emotional, frustrating, isolating and often demoralising plight of trying to find work.
Figure 1 – A regular view on job seeker’s computer screens, who aren’t given proper direction or careers support
Figure 2 – The good old Catch22, when you’re a young person starting out it isn’t easy to persuade employers
‘Unfortunately on this occasion…’, ‘we’re not in a position to give feedback’, ‘due to the amount of applicants, don’t expect to hear from us if you aren’t successful’, ‘overqualified/underqualified’, ‘lack of experience/catch22’, ‘it’s very competitive, it’s really hard, must be quite demoralising’, ‘I look forward to hearing from you…* – *employer doesn’t reply’ – these quotes/scenarios sound familiar? You aren’t alone.
We currently live in a society that does not seem to understand the importance of adequate careers direction or support in getting employment. Until this attitude changes, there will always be NEET, both young and old, there will always be a catch22, there will be increasing mental health problems, there will be greater public debt, more welfare spending and more people reliant on ESA/PIP rather than going through the emotional strain of trying to find suitable employment.
Young people in particular, have had things hard in recent years, with this continuous pressure and with an education system that has failed to keep up with the realities of employment and the rigorous expectation and demands employers now have, which can even be discriminatory towards some candidates. You can send of 100s of applications and they’ll still say no, yet this is now the norm.
As someone who still just falls under the young person bracket (16-24), I don’t want to be unemployed. I don’t want to be reliant on the state. I want to contribute to the economy. I feel I’m worth a salary. I have ambition. But time and time again, I have come across individuals who just don’t seem to understand, nor relate to my frustrations. I feel let down by this government and I firmly believe they are failing many young people today who just want to get on in life, in their bureaucratic Jobcentres and other state run services. I feel I have worked hard and I believe I deserve to have a job that leads somewhere. I feel insulted to be stigmatised, time and time again, by these state run institutions.
Employers may argue that competition is vital to better the economy, but with all the respect in the world to these people, it’s a two-way process. Employers, just aren’t doing enough to engage with candidates, with people, in schools, colleges and in universities. It just isn’t good enough to turn up set up stalls in recruitment fairs and hand out freebies, employers need to much better engage candidates, particularly candidates who feel locked out of employment such as disabled candidates, who only ask for reasonable adjustments to be made, which isn’t much to ask. Almost all job advertisements now use terminology such as ‘very competitive, extensive experience, multi-tasking, pressured environment…’, this is only going to unfairly stigmatise some candidates who already have had to overcome more than most, to get to where they are. Yet employers just don’t seem to acknowledge this fact at all or integrate them in their job descriptions.
According to research by the JRF (Joseph Rowntree Foundation), despite unemployment is decreasing, there is still a disproportionate number of disabled candidates who feel locked out of working or getting a career. I dealt with my own struggles and frustrations in the education system (and continuous stigma towards me surrounding mental health/ neurological conditions) and subsequent ‘transition’ into work by volunteering, it completely changed my life. However, what would have really helped was the overhaul the current system needs of transitioning from education, into training and eventually into work. It personally has caused me, so many problems and it has taken and continues to take a frustratingly long time, for me to get past this process. Until this changes, none of these fundamental flaws in employment will ever be completely addressed. The government can’t hide behind statistics alone forever.
While this ‘competitiveness’ is all well and good and while indeed the government may boast of higher employment, it still is nowhere near enough and there are still too many people that aren’t having their true talents recognised in the form of paid employment. I love my voluntary work, but I feel I’m worth more than just unpaid activities and I certainly feel I’m worth more than just a dead-end job like shelf-stacking, just because the careers advice I try to acquire is so bad, the transition into work support is so bad and no one seems interested.
David Cameron might say time and time again during PMQs ‘if you can work, you should work’, but it’s so insulting (and frankly arrogant) to suggest that some people choose not to work because they ‘can’t be bothered’. Until this government realises that their current, one-size-fits-all system fails people, then far too many people, after years of claiming from the state, will eventually be in dead end jobs (because of the transition into work failings) that they are, more often than not, way overqualified for (including participating in voluntary, unpaid activities).
