Young people are turning down jobs... Why?The largest obstacle to entering the employment, according to four out of ten people (44%) is a lack of training or skills, and about as many people also cite inadequate pay in entry-level positions. Additionally, young people see mental health as a significant barrier to entering and advancing in the workforce, Daily Dazzling Dawn understand.

On a Neets Reddit community, someone writes, "I'm thinking of living in the wild, just trotting around the world with little money." Another says, "The first few hours of my job in a retail store were fine, but then I had to deal with customers." "I simply left after packing my bag." 44,000 members from all over the world participate in this forum to exchange tips and talk about the difficulties of being a Neet, which stands for not in education, employment, or training. It's not a phenomenon that only occurs online. After leaving his position in 2020, Morgan told the FT, "I could never go back to working a normal job again." Morgan wants to be nameless. "The incentive to dedicate all of my time to an employer in order to barely scrape by no longer made sense now that inflation and rents were on the rise."  In the third quarter of this year, official UK figures showed 13 percent of 16- to 24-year-olds were NEETs, nearly 1 million people. Two-fifths of these were looking for work; the rest were “economically inactive,” neither working nor looking, opting out of the labor market completely.This puts the number of economically inactive young people close to its highest level—a similar story in Europe and the US, where more than 1 in 10 young people are NEETs. While the term first gained traction in 1990s UK government policy, which sought to help older teenagers into work, it has since been adopted internationally and by a wider subculture of economically inactive people. Reddit’s Neet forum includes people in their 50s; recent posts depict a “self-loathing man of inaction late 20s/early 30s” or ask if “30+ NEETS [can] turn their life around?” After starting out as a car salesman ten years ago, Morgan, now 30, was forced out of work by depression and an illness that took him in and out of the hospital. When he recovered, the pandemic had shut his industry down: he opted out of work, using the time to teach himself how to repair old cars and post videos online. “My time to develop my interests was worth more than I could make working, even if it wasn’t making me any money,” he says. But eventually the bills began to pile up. “I was put out on the street for unpaid rent. I lived in my car for a few days before a friend took me in. I’m lucky that’s where I am today.”Josh, 24, dropped out of university after deciding it wasn’t worth the money. “I went on to have a few retail jobs, but I found it tough to interact with people in the workplace because of my social anxiety,” he told the FT. I’ve moved back in with my parents now, who are able to support me. I help my mom around the house, and I’m trying to teach myself programming.” Louise Murphy, an economist at the Resolution Foundation think tank, says mental health is one driver of rising NEET numbers: in 20 years, the proportion of young people reporting a disorder such as anxiety or bipolar has increased from a quarter to a third. This makes them more likely to be out of work: An RF report found that between 2018 and 2022, 21 percent of 18- to 24-year-olds with mental health problems were jobless, compared with 13 percent of those without.  Niall O’Higgins, an International Labour Organization economist, suggests younger people are also disenchanted with the quality of jobs on offer and are “lacking prospects for development, workplace training, and the ability to build up their options.”.Employers make themselves more attractive, he says, by offering flexibility and support, including “exploring alternatives in terms of the organization of work.” In a survey of Gen Z workers by talent sourcing platform A.Team, 80 percent said the four-day working week should be the norm, 60 percent would like a hybrid working model, and half valued training opportunities. Murphy says nurturing relationships can have a significant impact. “When we asked what young people would change about the world of work, they didn’t ask for big, flashy reforms. They wanted to have more human, understanding managers.” This might include additions like one-to-one catch-ups, which are not the norm in all professions. “I resent the accusation that young people don’t want to work,” Morgan says. “Everyone wants to contribute, but the reward for devoting your time to doing so is no longer worth it in many cases.”

In Britain, also the Bangladeshi community's specialty young people unemployment rate is at a record high these days.