Jordi Vatlo, 24, from Barcelona, recalls the hundreds of job applications he has sent out in recent months: «I've almost lost count,» he says, speaking to Deutsche Welle. Η professional rejection has become routine for the Economics and Engineering graduate. «The lack of response from companies makes me feel like everything I've done doesn't count,» says the 24-year-old. After completing his master's degree at the IESE Business School in Madrid in July 2020, his only option was a short internship. Now he is unemployed.
Vatlo belongs to the millions of young graduates across Europe struggling for professional rehabilitation in a labour market that has reached its limits. Youth unemployment in Europe now stands at 17% - double the overall unemployment rate according to Eurostat. In October 2020, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) warned that a whole generation of young Europeans was at risk of being left behind, as many employers stopped hiring during the pandemic. This data led in 2020 to tsunami of applications for open jobs, but these were not ultimately met with a response. Thus, young graduates trying to enter the labour market are one of the groups most affected during the coronavirus period.
Killing the hopes of graduates
Hundreds of kilometres away from Barcelona, 23-year-old Georgia Barnes sits in her childhood bedroom in Dublin. Since graduating from her Masters in Business Administration at University College London in September 2020, she faces a similar situation to her Barcelona counterpart: Okay, I'll get a job when I graduate. Now I have a part-time job with a very low salary. I am not exactly where I hoped to be. Number of 15-24 year olds looking for work in the EU or underemployed increased by 5% since last year, The problem is more acute in Spain and Italy.
A problem also identified by recruitment experts, such as Oliver Cizek from the German consultancy Deloitte, is that the year of the pandemic has seen a surge in the number of job applications. Supply is greater than demand. The HR management company received 42% more applications in the fall of 2020 than in the same period last year.
A lost generation
According to OECD, another important aspect of youth unemployment concerns the depression. According to a survey carried out with the Brussels-based NGO European Youth Forum, 50% of young graduates show signs of anxiety and depression. «The messages we get are that we should be patient and everything will go back to normal. But the risk of a lost generation is not temporary,» says Celia Marcula, president of the European Youth Forum.
She believes that policy makers have forgotten young people. Welfare systems in many countries do not cover internships or other short-term forms of work, creating additional obstacles, says Marcula. At the same time, the head of the Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, did not mention youth unemployment as a problem in her State of the Union speech in September 2020 either.
For her part, Esther Jardim, who received her degree in 2009 during global financial crisis, sends its own message to the pandemic generation, telling its own special story. When she was rejected from a job in 2010, she decided to do something crazy. She went out on the street wearing a painting that read: «Political Science Graduate, A Diploma, 3 internships, 2 months unemployed, Looking for only 1 job.» Her idea caught on, she received offers from 30 companies and was finally hired at her dream job in a PR firm. She sympathizes with the current young unemployed of the pandemic, but also sees opportunities, for example by inviting them to take advantage of the possibilities offered by social media to find a job or expand their circle of professional contacts.
