AI has raised the stakes of taking your first step up the career ladder - and made it tougher and costlier than ever.
Georgie Blackburn, a Gloucestershire-based career coach, is one of the few beneficiaries. In a two-decade career advising everyone from senior executives to military leavers, she says most of her clients today are young people fresh out of university, up from just one in 10 two years ago.
“I have seen it as a growth area for my business,” said Blackburn, whose early-careers services can cost up to £750 ($1,010) and may direct people to volunteer work, internships or online courses to build experience. “A degree is not enough on its own, never has been, but even more so today.”
The situation is particularly dire in Britain, where a youth-unemployment rate of 16.4% is the highest in a decade, and is rising faster than in any other G-7 country. The graduate premium over the minimum wage has been cut in half since 2007.
In response, the UK government is increasingly paying employers to take on young workers. Prime Minister Andy Burnham has expanded his predecessor’s jobs-guarantee scheme, subsidizing minimum-wage roles for 18-to-24 year-olds who’ve been claiming unemployment benefits for 18 months or more. And the government has introduced a grant of £3,000 per job for employers who hire young people who have been unemployed for a shorter time.
