New research reveals that jobseekers aged 18-24 have very little confidence in finding a position in the next six months. Talent’s More than a number report surveyed young people around the world to find out how the COVID-19 pandemic has affected them, finding that 65 per cent of them have lost their jobs in the last six months and that 57 per cent believe that the pandemic has scotched their job prospects.
The report also shows that the economic impact of COVID-19 is the biggest barrier to employment for young people, followed by a lack of prior experience.
Talent founder and Executive Chairman Richard Earl said that there is a strong need for more support for the youth community globally.
“The biggest insight I drew from this…report is that the majority of young participants, despite their education level or background, had experienced extreme difficulties in finding work and many indicated they were feeling that it was an almost an impossible task in this current climate,” Earl said. “We might all be in the same storm but young people are in a different boat when it comes to the impacts of COVID-19.”
Earl said that the research indicates that young people are facing a myriad of issues, many of which to unemployment.
“The low levels of confidence and the overwhelming desire from these young people to obtain more help from us shows that there is a huge lack of support for them out there,” he said. “The-long term impacts of ignoring this issue could be devastating, many studies show that if a young person isn’t in meaningful employment by the age of 22, they’re much more likely to face a future of welfare dependency.
“These are just some of the many young voices that are represented in the report reminding us that these aren’t numbers, they are human beings. Humans that represent our future workforce,” Earl added. “We hope our findings help to put stories behind the statistics and shed light on a problem we all have a collective responsibility to solve.”
Talent has launched an initiative called Talent RISE in conjunction with the report. It offers education, training, work readiness programs, and job placement opportunities for young people who are experiencing challenging barriers to employment.
