Nearly one million young people cannot find work, according to official
figures this week, and an estimated one in six under-25s is now deemed to be
a ”Neet” – that is, not in education, employment or training.
In today’s climate graduates are going to extraordinary lengths to secure a
decent job. James Hunter-Jones recently stood on the fourth plinth in
Trafalgar Square, with his mobile telephone number across his T-shirt, under
the slogan “hard-working graduate seeks paid employment”. Offers,
unfortunately, were not forthcoming, despite the fact he graduated with a
degree in Russian and philosophy a year ago and has since completed a
postgraduate business course.
It is not hard to see why even the best-qualified graduates are feeling the
pain. Many large companies that have traditionally taken on significant
numbers of new graduates are scaling back recruitment, particularly in the
financial services and legal sectors.
And given the scarcity of jobs, there is increased competition for any post
advertised – even unpaid internships and work-experience placements. Even
those who decide to stay on in education will find there is increased demand
for places on courses, be they masters degrees, MBAs, legal conversion
courses or teacher training places.
To make matters worse, most of those graduating today are doing so with record
debt. According to
an independent website offering advice on student life, those graduating
this summer had average debts of almost £14,000. A survey showed that most
of this (78pc) is owed to the Student Loan Company, but many owe substantial
amounts to banks, credit card companies and parents.
Johnny Rich, the editor of
said: “Graduates have often struggled financially after leaving
university and many find it difficult to walk into their dream job, but
these problems are becoming particularly acute in the current economic
climate.”
Fortunately for Mr Hunter-Jones, he has secured a valuable internship, at the
stockbrokers Killik & Co, and he hopes this will improve his employment
prospects. Here are some tips to help other graduates survive the recession.
1 Prioritise your debts
Pay off your most expensive debt first. For most graduates this is likely to
be credit cards, followed by any overdraft that charges interest. Even if
you have an interest-free overdraft you will be hit with charges and far
higher interest rates if you exceed your limit.
Student loans are one of the cheapest ways to borrow money, as the interest
charged is linked to inflation (as measured by September’s retail price
index) …
Read the original article at Telegraph
Related Posts
Tags: Banks, Business, Car, Cards, city, company, Credit Cards, debt, Education, finance, financial, Inflation, Interest Rates, Job, legal, loans, money, pay, Recession, rent, stock, UK
