A RECENT study by the Graduate Careers Services Unit has revealed a huge hike in the rates of unemployment amongst graduates. Almost one in ten of those who graduated in summer 2009 were out of work the following January. This represents a dramatic increase in the levels of unemployment; the figure has almost doubled in two years.
Claire Laker-Mansfield, Socialist Students national organiser
Those who have been lucky enough to find work, are now more and more likely to be working in low paid, part-time jobs, that do not require degree qualifications. With 725,000 expected job cuts in the public sector, and a further 900,000 in the private sector likely to follow, the situation is likely to only get worse.
For millions of young people across the country this is yet another door slammed in their faces. As Lord Browne tries to justify his plans for sky high tuition fees with the argument that graduates will have greater earning power, tens of thousands of young people with degrees are languishing in the dole queues. Saddled with mounting debt and little prospect of a decent job, the future that the Con-Dem government has in store for graduates and all young people is a bleak one. Young people will have to fight for decent jobs and education.
On 10 November thousands of students, young people, and education workers will march through the streets of London, on a demonstration called by the national students’ union (NUS) and lecturers’ union (UCU).
This should send a clear message to the government: that young people and workers will not accept the bleak future that the government is offering.
Socialist Students and the Youth Fight for Jobs campaign, which has the support of UCU, will have a fighting bloc on this demonstration. We will be proposing a strategy to fight cuts and defeat the Browne Review. The demonstration on the 10th must only be the beginning of the fightback.
On 24 November Youth Fight for Jobs and Socialist Students are calling for a day of mass protests and walk-outs at campuses and colleges all over the country as the next step in building a mass campaign. We will not be a lost generation!
