School leavers and university graduates are hardest hit for jobs in the UK.

August 31st, 2009 by tom | Filed under Daily News, Employment, UK Banks, UK Small Business, UK employment.

employment

The appeal of the gap year has never been stronger for the tens of thousands of high school terminators and university graduates who are breaking their heads to try and find a niche in the hard-pressed UK job market.

Employers throughout the UK are handing out the same message throughout the length and breadth of the British Isles: Can you come back next year?

For those who leave school, this rejection may not be such a bad idea, because it may convince them of the importance of gaining a profession, but for those who have worked hard and possibly made sacrifices so that they can enter the job market with something to show, it is possible to understand their frustration.

Anyone who has yet to gain a foothold in the jobs’ market will find it difficult to do so for at least the next six months. Statistics show that out of the 2.9 million unemployed in the UK, close to a million of them are under the age of 25. That means one in three, with that cruel proportion expected to remain in place until the UK economy begins to turn around.

There are more than 400,000 young people who have just completed high school and who can be added to the approximate 300,000 university graduates now in the work-place market. You must consider that behind these statistics are young people, ostensibly with a future before them, who may well feel that they have been betrayed by the UK government, the banks and big business.

One of the clearest pictures of the severity of the situation is the news released this week that British Telecom, one of the UK’s largest employers, will be suspending its graduate recruitment scheme in 2010, and the same story is repeating itself thorough the UK.

Graduates who need to find a job will be forced to lower their sights considerably, and the younger and unskilled will find it even tougher.

financial