The writer is the author of ‘Uncharted: How to Navigate the Future’
I’m currently employing a young man, a recent graduate with a degree in cyber security. But he’s not keeping my network safe from hackers. He’s splitting logs, because the hours he is spending alone online, searching for his first job, are leaving him isolated and depressed. His mother was almost in tears worrying about him. My view was that one small help might be some work that gets him out of the house and gives him a bit of fresh air, exercise and cash.
It’s a poor solution to a desperate problem. He is one of tens of thousands of young people, often derided by older generations as snowflakes or slackers. But he is none of these things. He turns up on time and does excellent work. If I were still running software companies, I’d give him a try. At least an interview. Except that that isn’t how the job market works these days. Instead, the world’s bedrooms are full of lonely young people wading through websites that promise their efficient algorithmic filtering will take them straight to the dream job. In fact they do no such thing.
Just try it. On some of the most popular job hunt websites, I submitted search terms including the words “entry level” or “junior”, and received pages and pages of jobs, most requiring at least three, even five, years of experience. It’s a terrible business model that values high traffic and time spent on site over accuracy. But of course, the applicants aren’t the customers — advertisers are. Who cares if kids who just want their first real job burn themselves out wading through pages and pages of irrelevant ads that essentially convey a simple message: you are worthless?
If by some fluke, job searchers unearth a relevant lead, they devote countless hours to crafting a tailor-made personal statement. These applications are rarely acknowledged, and it’s unclear if anybody reads them. Instead they are scanned and mostly rejected, usually without even an automated “thanks but no thanks”. A 2021 Harvard Business School study showed that 90 per cent of employers use automated tracking software to sift through applications, even though most acknowledge that these systems vet out qualified candidates because they don’t precisely match the criteria in the job description. The rarities that get through to the next of an unknown number of rounds, often then face tests or interviews with a bot that provides no feedback.
Job seekers learn nothing from this process, only that the world doesn’t care about them. After months of searching, they feel humiliated and utterly alienated from the world of work, before they’ve even started. It is the most dehumanising process I have ever encountered. And I once worked in a call centre.
While ministers debate reducing benefits to boost incentives, they might consider how profoundly disincentivising the system for acquiring jobs is. It is a recipe for disaffection and rage. When young people see that society takes no stake in them, it’s a small step for them to reject any stake in society. A few candidates will know people who know people, but many parents don’t know how to help their children, so profoundly has the world of work changed since their first jobs. Watching this automated misery, they feel humiliated too.
Employers may imagine the system is efficient. In fact, it is a wasted opportunity. Every time someone applies for a job, there is a chance to build that company’s reputation. Those young people (and their parents) are also consumers. So this is a moment to polish a brand, not tarnish it. Kids will remember who helped and who treated them as disposable. No amount of advertising will persuade them that the companies that never replied will ever care, about people or the planet or customers.
The whole dismal system sends a weak signal for an already uncertain future. Earlier this year, research from Imperial College London found that in the two years between July 2021 and July 2023, “online freelancers in professions that are more vulnerable to automation saw an overall 21 per cent fall in weekly demand for their skills”. Lacking clout or a union, these workers are largely invisible.
Those who unthinkingly embrace technology in recruitment are wilfully blind to its consequences. Across the board we have generations of eager, able young people struggling to pay the bills and make their contribution. We should be thinking now about how to preserve social cohesion, if only for the simple reason that, without it, no business will flourish.