Covid-19 changed everything for Street League - the way we work, our staff, partners, and young people. At an event we hosted, we heard from Maja Gustafsson, a researcher at the Resolution Foundation - an independent think-tank focused on improving the living standards for those on low to middle income.
How Covid-19 is affecting young people
Maja shared the Foundation’s research on the impact of the current crisis on young people and their long-term career prospects:
- 18-24 year olds have seen less pay during lockdown than those who are older and more established in the job market.
- Young people are the least likely to be able to work from home, and more likely to work in less secure employment including temporary work and zero hour positions. These are the kind of workers that employers let go of first.
- In a crisis, finding work becomes even harder – there’s fewer jobs, so the chances of gaining employment are reduced.
- When people left education during the lockdown period, the sectors that tend to employ young people were the ones closed. In the first few years, these sectors are very important as the first steps in people’s careers.
- Short spells of unemployment increase your chances of being unemployed in the future - if there is an economic crisis early on in someone’s career it is more likely that there will be unemployment and long-term scarring.
- People with degrees see a sooner recovery, whereas young people with lower level qualifications see a longer impact and we see a scarring even 10 years later.
