Are we seeing more joblessness among the Generation Y group?

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Are we seeing more joblessness among the Generation Y group?


I have been receiving quite alot of mails lately from the jobless community but a few glaring things stood out during this period - they are all mostly men, in their 30s and also well educated.

We have all along received daily mails from the jobless people throughout these 4 years of operation but they usually are in between the 40s to 50s age range.

Introduction

There are the rare odd few that belonged to the 20s-30s age group but lately I detected, shockingly, that mails from this Generation Y age group has been coming in more regularly than any other period. They are also mostly men.

Moreover, all along, our status as a financial business hub has attracted high employment among the women workforce as the financial sector is considered a service industry. Women executives work well in an office environment and of late, one can see at least 70% feminine presence in banks, financial institutions and stock broking firms.

Men traditionally dominate in the manufacturing and IT industries but as many of these jobs have migrated to cheaper countries, they are left to nimble at jobs within the smaller SMEs and MNCs.

I have seen a few of the younger jobless PMETs personally as I wanted to know why they are currently unemployed when we are supposed to be having zero unemployment. Any unemployment statistics that have a figure of two and below percentage point means that the country has achieved zero unemployment.
Its a proud achievement for any country now when some European countries are having double-digit unemployment figures. Even the richest country in the world right now– the US – is struggling with double-digit unemployment.

Most of the Generation Y unemployed people I saw have at least a degree and some even paid quite alot of money to get a solid university education from overseas – mostly Australian universities.

They are also mostly engineers, IT specialists or finance graduates. Most of them are from middle-income family background and stays in HDB flats.

A few of them managed to work and study part-time to earn their degrees from USIM. To them, a university degree is a prerequisite right now and you can’t go without one.

The mere fact that they proudly spoke at length about their tertiary educational qualification made me realised that it is something that brought them much self esteem and being a very achievement-orientated society, it is also something that you won’t want to find missing from your portfolio.


Education– passport to better well paying jobs
A degree somehow defines who you are and what you are make of. One even is ashamed to inform his peers that he does not have a degree!

I dread to inform them that when they are in their 40s, a degree or even an MBA may not get you anywhere and many of them have in fact turn to cab driving or become a property agent to make ends meet.

Moreover, there are so many different kinds of degress and tertiary institutions out there that the employers have a hard time distinguishing one from the other. Of course, if you manage to earn a degree from those highly-esteemed Ivy League universities, then your job opportunities will be many times better than those from the ordinary universities.

A first-class honours degree from a reputable university will also be very much sought after than other classes and catapults you into the world of rare talents.

If you want to work in the government sector, it is better to have a degree from the local universities – especially if you aspire to be a teacher. Seldom have I hard of a foreign degree holder managing to enter the highly-paid teaching profession. A honours fresh graduate will probably earn close to $3200 – even before she has laid hands on a piece of chalk!

The Generation Y’s expensive tertiary studies are probably financed from their parents’life-long savings and this group thus has the innate longing to take good care of their parents out of gratitude.

Ominously for those jobless guys that I have met, even at the age of mid 30s, they are mostly single and some have even permanently waive off marriage from their mind as they felt that if they could not take care of themselves and their parents, how can they take care of their own families?

I thought that our Generation Y has lived in one of the toughest period of our post-independence era and some have even lamented to me that they have seen through at least four economic crises since they were born!

Suffice to say, at the young age of 30s when life is supposed to be at their prime best and you are looking forward to settling down with your loved one, its perhaps not the best time to be unemployed and struggling financially.

Optimism is not a key word for this group as they tottered between jobs and more often than not, their unflattering job record smelled more of a job hopper.

Many told me that they left their jobs because of work stress and office politics. Is it possible that their dependency nature has caused them to be soft and lacking resilience – that they easily throw in the towel in the face of adversity?

Generation Y – The Strawberry Generation?

MINDEF has recently introduced mental adversity lessons in their national service curriculum and one suspects that the government may have all along realise that our younger generation are mentally soft and thus gives up easily when face with adversities or stiff competition.
However, one must be sympathetic to the kind of harsh environment that our Generation Y has been thrown into right now. Most of them have a starting pay that I managed to draw ten years ago and the influx of foreign workers have make their life so much harder than my babyboomer generation.

At 32 years old, I was already settling down with my wife, managed to pay for the downpayment of my HDB executive flat and looking foward to start my family with great confidence. Jobs were aplenty and employers were paying all kinds of obscent salaries to retain staff.

I also realised ironically that during this modern era of high GDP and globalisation, it has not make things any easier for our Generation Y as they struggle with high cost of living and stiff competition for work from foreign talents.

Their salaries are also nothing much to shout about – the highest quote that I could garner from the lot that I saw recently is $4,500 – from a 35-year-old IT system analyst who was axed because he was replaced by a cheaper foreign talent.

Most of them could not command salaries over $3,000 a month – a gross testimony to the stagnanted salaries we have over the past decade. The recent influx of cheap foreign talents has also ensured that our salaries will not appreciate much in the short to medium term making things even harder for the Generation Y population.
Many thus dreamed of an escape through the migration route. One of the young jobless PMETs that I have seen is already drawing up plans to leave for his country of study – Australia.

“Its a madhouse here, Gilbert,”Max confided in me when he resigned from his third job over four years in the banking industry.

“You worked from 9am to 9pm, earned $3000+ dollars and the pressure is relentless.” He has already put up application to migrate and will leave Singapore at the first instant of approval from the embassy.

He is also not dating much as he felt that his unflattering job record will be a hindrance if he ever starts a family here.

One female 2o-something PMET I knew even hooked up with a New Zealander so that she could migrate and leave this terrible place – even though she earns close to $5000 from the recruitment industry.

Another 32-year-old guy – Tom – whom I met at Toa Payoh Ya Kun three weeks ago, painted me a picture of doom and gloom as he related to me his unemployment story.

He managed to find temp work earning peanuts at $7 an hour as he searched for something more tangible.

He used to be a teacher aide earning $1500 a month and loved it so much that he tried to pursue a degree through his evening studies so that he can become a full-fledged teacher here.

As he earned his degree through the evening part time courses, there is little recognition from the Ministry of Education and Tom was literally brought back to earth – shattering his dream to be an educator.

Long used to receiving pent-up wrath from the jobless community, I realised that the Generation Y group never relaxes a muscle as they vented out their frustration verbally: “I am in a fix, Gilbert!”

“I am supposted to have my new BTO HDB flat soon and how can I pay the mortgages if I don’t even have a good job?”

Marriage is also coming by soon for him as the young couple has to register their marriage once the new flat arrives and he is getting up-tight by his current unemployment state.

He has also sent out countless resumes to many government bodies but so far there isn’t much response from them.

How about trying the private sector?

“That is worse,” Tom retored as I sipped my coffee from Ya Kun amidst saliva spluttering out from his pent-up venom. “They don’t even aknowledge your application at all!”

We departed from Toa Payoh Central amidst a cloud of uncertainty as Tom tried to figure out how best to present himself to the next employer when he gets call up for an interview.

Generation Y – Era of High GDP and Great Stress

I couldn’t help but felt sorry for a young man who is supposed to be happy about tying the knot soon– but yet he is facing a happy occasion with much doubt and uncertainty.

I also recently met up with Alex –a 35-year-old IT system analyst who is chatty and articulate.

Looking much younger than his age, Alex is also looking at working abroad so that he could be a foreign talent overseas than struggling here and competing with cheaper foreign workers.

I thought that at least, in Alex, I found someone who is more assertive and confident than the rest of the Generation Y lot that I have seen recently.

Its a battle he thinks he will ultimately lose as employers have a wider pool of IT specialists to choose from especially right now with the current influx of foreign talents.
Also single and swearing off dating and marriage so that he will not have an extra set of burden to take care of, he was asked to resign late last year so that he could make way for a cheaper foreign talent.

He was one of the few that I could recall in their 30s who managed to draw a healthy $4500 a month in his last job.

Though he knew that he has to make provisions later on as employers will not even consider hiring him when he turns forty years old in five years’ time, he is clueless and rather hopless at the current employment situation here.

“What can I do Gilbert?” he kept asking me as we met for two hours at Serangoon NEX burger king recently.

As a counsellor, we were trained not to provide answers but merely give options but sometimes its difficult not to be seen as an advisor from the helpless jobless community.

Not one of the many jobless PMETs I saw recently has managed to convince me that one should try to be entrepreneurial to ekk out a decent living for the long term.
Many are comfortable shifting from one job to the other – making ends meet as they try to stay on a job as long as they possibly can. Many are also on contractual terms– meaning they will be made jobless once the contract ends.

Contracts do not allow a person to look at their future with great optimism and confidence – on the contrary it gives them lots of doubt and uncertainty for the future so that they can’t plan much ahead.

Many people have also categorised our Generation Y group as the strawberry generation.

They entered a world whereby everything is already been fought for and won over – by their parents.

They merely need to study hard, gain good grades and find a good job – and live happily after.

Some even have maids to wash their plates after they have eaten and many stay comfortably in their parents’ homes – without having to worry much about life.
The route is already laid for them and if they are meritocratic enough they will find the path of gold.

Many are thus shell-shocked after they have graduated and enter into a world of hard work, zero work life balance and frequent employment exploitation.

Lacking tenacity and not very street smart, many of our Generation Y PMETs prefer to work for the government as they are safer and better in providing workers’welfare. At least, the government sector won’t exploit you like the foreign MNCs and local SMEs do.

The rough and tumble of the foreigners-infested private sector is best left to the Generation X or even baby boomers to fight it out - as our young graduates filtered out working in our many SMEs or MNCs. These industries are always in their third or fourth choices when they are out looking for work.

Conclusion

The government has always place priority on taking care of the employment needs of our fresh young graduates as they represent the cream of the society.

Moreover, if you have too many jobless young graduates in the country, this is always a cause for concern as they are reckless, rash and more capable of starting something foolish when they are emotional.

Many riots in the Middle east countries are started off by unemployed young graduates as they have nothing to lose and worse, easily agitated

Those who are jobless and belongs to the Generation X or babyboomers era are seldom as emotional or angry as the Generation Y group. Maybe the older folks have seen through alot in life and are more resilient as compared to those who are younger.

As our country ploughs on relentlessly in search of higher GDP growth through the influx of foreign workers, let us be mindful that if more of our younger graduates are left on the shelf like the Generation X and babyboomers have been, it could be an ominous signal to the authorities that all is not well with our country.
Written by: Gilbert Goh
- See more at:http://www.transitioning.org/2013/07....0S9U0klS.dpuf


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