By Susan Lee
Talking to a friend the other day, she asked me what year I had started work. So I got out my calculator and realised it was 40 years since I was sent, as a new recruit, on my very first training course in my first job. Apart from the fact that the news brought me up horribly short – my head tells me I am still 30 although my aching joints disagree – it also set me thinking about that first foray into the world of work and how relatively easy it was to secure it. I was 17, still at school and had decided I wanted to be a journalist so I wrote to lots of local papers asking for work experience. One editor invited me in for an informal chat where he asked about my hobbies and then offered me a start date. I don’t flatter myself he’d spotted some trait of genius in me; a big chunk of my school friends also left school and went straight into a job or career.
Banking, insurance, retail, and the police service; I don’t recall any of us struggling to get a foot on the jobs ladder despite living in a less than wealthy city battered by economic hardship. It all feels very different today.
This week, the boss of retailer Next highlighted a dramatic fall in the number of entry-level posts in the UK. Lord Simon Wolfson told the BBC the company now receives twice as many applicants for each role than two years ago. In 2024 there were typically 10 for every job in its shops, today it’s 19. Of course 2026 is a very different landscape to 1986. Now our kids and grandkids have to face a jobs market impacted by the online world and mass automation – we’ve all seen those self-scan tills in shops. Meanwhile, who knows how AI will shape the future, although entry level positions are most at risk from the new technology.
Little wonder youth unemployment is an issue with almost a million youngsters not in education or training. There are those who argue the ban on zero-hours contracts, coming in next year, is impacting companies’ ability to hire staff. I don’t buy that. Neither do I think the answer lies with a reversal in the rise of national insurance contributions employers have to pay. Teeth-sucking by some about the impact of an increase in the minimum wage leaves me unmoved.
Instead, we need to be asking some big questions. Does our education system align with labour market needs? How can we encourage more apprentices or young entrepreneurs? How do we upskill our teenagers to prepare for jobs not yet even imagined? What’s really needed is a cohesive strategy rather than endless job programmes. No one has a job for life any more but everyone, especially our kids, is entitled to a job in order to live.
One more thing...
As the holiday season looms into view, so does travel chaos. I’m not talking about cones on the M6 or the new border control checks but rather what you can and can’t take on a plane these days. The rules seem to change faster than Donald Trump’s view on – well, anything really. How much liquid in cabin baggage is now too much? Does my nail file count as an offensive weapon? Will lip gloss be confiscated? The last time I flew, I unpacked my mobile phone, Kindle and iPad into an inspection tray only to be told it was no longer a thing and to put it all back in my bag. So the story about an EasyJet flight forced to divert for safety reasons because a passenger had left a portable power bank charging in their hold luggage surprised me not one jot. Was it a bit thoughtless of the traveller? Yes. Is it something I could see myself doing? Also yes. I’m not a nervous flier but I am a perplexed passenger.
