I shall try to keep this as close and accurate as I can possibly get to explaining how I see the job market in England (and many other countries around the World) at the moment......It is f****d. I noted back in genesis of my blog that I would refrain from swearing in my writing so the **** half masks my contempt.
If you read my previous blog entry, you'd know I am currently unemployed (partly my fault, party my last company was the worst company I have ever worked for). In fact, this is the first time I have ever not had a job for an extended period of time since I was about 10yrs old delivering milk! This is really the first time the recession has hit me in a personal way as well. I was in University for two years of the recession and another year in America. Last year I even moved country and had no problems picking up a job immediately (in Indianapolis). I wish I was still there and not having to struggle to pay my rent here.
So without pointing out the obvious, we are in one of the worst recessions of the 21st Century. Trying to gauge 'worst' mainly is financial. From what I've studied of the 30's depression, the depression was about clothing and food and trying to get by which was accomplished by families pulling together and mass projects employing tens of thousands of people and thus being pulled out of it (followed by a War...watch this space). Today though, we measure the recession by how much we have in the bank, how big our house is, whether we buy organic, top shelf food or Sainsbury's back to basics groceries and whether we can afford that extra pint down the pub. Ok I may have exaggerated some of that but no one is starving in the street just yet....
The problem me, myself and I am having is that I have a degree, I have travelled and I have had a stack of jobs for a limited time which either makes me over qualified or under qualified in equal measure. I know I am not alone in this as the younger generation is the hardest hit. In fact, my own friends who all have decent jobs in London like to have a good snipe about how I should have stayed in Insurance and worked my way up, never bothered with University or travelling and maybe I'd be better off now. I wouldn't say they were wrong but there is no way that path was for me anyhow. So that is how I come to find myself in the 2,000,000 in this country right now who are out of work.
In other areas, the E.U is in crisis with Italy and Greece in particular having an unemployment rate of 19% and 21% respectively. In fact, in some ways the recession is fantastic for some employers. Any employer now looking for staff can lower the wage to minimum (legally £6.08hr) in England and still have desperate people biting their hand off for the job. Companies looking to cut back have found certain loop-holes to get rid of people (via 6 month probation periods) or simply say "we have no money left to pay you," As I witnessed with two key banks this week. The worst part of the whole thing is that the poor and middle class are getting poorer while the rich seem to be getting richer (Basildon council revealed that last year, their top 6 highest paid people were paid £1.2m between them). No one seems to have a solution, analysts say it will now be five years until things will be better (it was 1yr 2.5yrs ago) and everyone who doesn't have a job expects to survive on £62 a week welfare money.
Talking of welfare, I wandered down to the job seekers office last week to be greeted with the usual chav "I've been unemployed for the rest of my life" kind of people but what was more interesting was the calibre of people walking around. Yes you have your single mothers with 25 kids but I began to see more and more middle aged 'normal looking' people who have all of a sudden found themselves without work for the first time in their lives. When I had an appointment with a job advisor, I was asked "what have you done to look for work Adrian?" I replied the usual..."signed up with five agencies, three interviews, handed C.V's in to a further 10 companies etc." (All of which are true). I then asked if there were any jobs on the system that I could do. The only thing they had were sales jobs (which are not real jobs, they are a trial where you go, if you don't hit your targets then you are asked not to come back at the end of the week - again, a win win for employers, a win only if you can sell and lie).
In short, no graduate jobs - which will get worse once the triple tuition fees come into place next Sep, everyone wants to try pay you minimum wage, you either got into your current job before the recession and are of value or you move country. You could try survive on job seekers allowance but £62 a week does not go far. Actually, it doesn't even cover food let alone your rent (Thanks Andy!)
I sure would love to hear from anyone going through the same problems or generally would like to comment. If anyone has any ideas on how to make some money (robbery, kidnapping and extortion have all been attempted by myself to no avail) then get in touch.
If you read my previous blog entry, you'd know I am currently unemployed (partly my fault, party my last company was the worst company I have ever worked for). In fact, this is the first time I have ever not had a job for an extended period of time since I was about 10yrs old delivering milk! This is really the first time the recession has hit me in a personal way as well. I was in University for two years of the recession and another year in America. Last year I even moved country and had no problems picking up a job immediately (in Indianapolis). I wish I was still there and not having to struggle to pay my rent here.
So without pointing out the obvious, we are in one of the worst recessions of the 21st Century. Trying to gauge 'worst' mainly is financial. From what I've studied of the 30's depression, the depression was about clothing and food and trying to get by which was accomplished by families pulling together and mass projects employing tens of thousands of people and thus being pulled out of it (followed by a War...watch this space). Today though, we measure the recession by how much we have in the bank, how big our house is, whether we buy organic, top shelf food or Sainsbury's back to basics groceries and whether we can afford that extra pint down the pub. Ok I may have exaggerated some of that but no one is starving in the street just yet....
The problem me, myself and I am having is that I have a degree, I have travelled and I have had a stack of jobs for a limited time which either makes me over qualified or under qualified in equal measure. I know I am not alone in this as the younger generation is the hardest hit. In fact, my own friends who all have decent jobs in London like to have a good snipe about how I should have stayed in Insurance and worked my way up, never bothered with University or travelling and maybe I'd be better off now. I wouldn't say they were wrong but there is no way that path was for me anyhow. So that is how I come to find myself in the 2,000,000 in this country right now who are out of work.
In other areas, the E.U is in crisis with Italy and Greece in particular having an unemployment rate of 19% and 21% respectively. In fact, in some ways the recession is fantastic for some employers. Any employer now looking for staff can lower the wage to minimum (legally £6.08hr) in England and still have desperate people biting their hand off for the job. Companies looking to cut back have found certain loop-holes to get rid of people (via 6 month probation periods) or simply say "we have no money left to pay you," As I witnessed with two key banks this week. The worst part of the whole thing is that the poor and middle class are getting poorer while the rich seem to be getting richer (Basildon council revealed that last year, their top 6 highest paid people were paid £1.2m between them). No one seems to have a solution, analysts say it will now be five years until things will be better (it was 1yr 2.5yrs ago) and everyone who doesn't have a job expects to survive on £62 a week welfare money.
Talking of welfare, I wandered down to the job seekers office last week to be greeted with the usual chav "I've been unemployed for the rest of my life" kind of people but what was more interesting was the calibre of people walking around. Yes you have your single mothers with 25 kids but I began to see more and more middle aged 'normal looking' people who have all of a sudden found themselves without work for the first time in their lives. When I had an appointment with a job advisor, I was asked "what have you done to look for work Adrian?" I replied the usual..."signed up with five agencies, three interviews, handed C.V's in to a further 10 companies etc." (All of which are true). I then asked if there were any jobs on the system that I could do. The only thing they had were sales jobs (which are not real jobs, they are a trial where you go, if you don't hit your targets then you are asked not to come back at the end of the week - again, a win win for employers, a win only if you can sell and lie).
In short, no graduate jobs - which will get worse once the triple tuition fees come into place next Sep, everyone wants to try pay you minimum wage, you either got into your current job before the recession and are of value or you move country. You could try survive on job seekers allowance but £62 a week does not go far. Actually, it doesn't even cover food let alone your rent (Thanks Andy!)
I sure would love to hear from anyone going through the same problems or generally would like to comment. If anyone has any ideas on how to make some money (robbery, kidnapping and extortion have all been attempted by myself to no avail) then get in touch.
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