Ten years ago to the day I finished school. The recession had hit two years previously and the world went crazy. So many people had been made jobless. Jobs shut down across the country. After graduating with A levels/Highers and having a gap year it really was a hard time to youth. This was the dawn of the job age you will not get a job without experience but to get experience you needed experience. The only job I could get was working in a call centre for £6 pounds an hour which was the best I could get back then.
Now coming out of quarantine, I’m facing my second recession but this time I am more prepared. I have savings, enterprise, experience and my degree. But those coming out of education are going to be so far worse off than even we were. Covid-19 has shut everything down around the world. Students have been denied the opportunity to gain qualifications and face a huge gap in their education without much other opportunity.
This isn’t even the start of it. The opportunities which have been fought for over the last ten years are going to be depleted. So many businesses are going to shut down including the hospitality sector which is where most of the work is. Even McDonalds is shut. But even in the next year its going to get worse.
We currently have capped fees and free education but with the limiting travel there will be fewer university places and even raised fees to support them from the reduced international income over the next year. The travel industry is going to be severally implicated. This provides hundreds of jobs to younger workers who basically keep this sector alive.
Not only that but teenagers are giving up their youth. They are giving up time and experience with their friends which otherwise would have been spent enjoying themselves. Who knows what the impact will be not only mention increased anxiety, depression and electronic addiction from being trapped inside? All of this will have saved lives but like the millennials they will be subject to shaming from the older generation for not “growing up”!
Some of those just out of school or newly self employed are really suffering. Some including myself haven’t earned anything in 2 months and this could go on for another 4 months. Yes we are saving lives but the quality of life is reducing every day for those who cannot work. The government pays furlough to workers but the self employed only get £2000 over six months. Imagine having £300 a month to live off. Not everyone has people to fall back on. What is the cost of lives and the future of others.
It will be harder to get into uni, catch up on qualifications, get jobs to move out, get a mortgage. The help to buy scheme has been shut down. You need fifty percent of equity to even get looked at. It’s going to be harder than ever for the younger generation to become full independent and those with money will be even further ahead.
Please let’s thank the young people for their sacrifice and provide as many opportunities as possible for them to move forward in this world. On Lone Swift we’re going to be helping as many young actors get a moment in the spot light and open doors in the world which is going to be hard to live in very soon.
theloneswift.com 
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