The Broke Generation… How Baby Boomers are Stealing our Jobs!

 Read more from Eva-Maria here.

This month, North & South magazine published an interesting article about today’s generations. The title was ‘The Broke Generation…or a Bunch of Whingers?’ It was an interesting read because it turns out Gen X (those born roughly in the 60s-70s) is in the same boat – Baby Boomers, having worked hard all their lives are taking up job spaces, thus not letting the younger generations progress or even get hired in the workforce.

You would think the more people in the world there are, the more jobs would be available. This is the first time in history when 4 generations exist, thus Baby Boomers are sticking it out as long as they can, while University graduates are forced to settle for working as kitchen hands and cafe waiters.

• Have University standards dropped?

• Is that why they can’t get jobs?

• Are University graduates under-qualified for jobs?

The reality is that Baby Boomers are just far more experienced and because of this are staying in jobs, or getting offered jobs where people know they have had the years of experience.

But this doesn’t help Generation Y (those born approximately in the 80s – 90s), and so the age-old question remains: how are University graduates supposed to get experience if no one will hire them?

Having looked around on TradeMe, there are gazillions of job opportunities, but don’t be fooled, because instead of investing in a fresh perspective (i.e. putting out jobs that young people could qualify for), even a simple administration jobs are asking for people with at least 5 years experience. No graduate can compete with a Baby Boomer who has been there and done that! Where is this inter-generational conflict??

It goes back to trust. In the 60’s, when Baby Boomers were teenagers, many were given the trust and opportunity to become apprentices in different trades.

The government today, although have put in place great opportunities for young people to try out different jobs through programs such as Gateway while they’re still at school, the same Baby Boomers and Generation Xers advise young people to get a degree at University, because it’s still very much the norm to obtain a higher education to progress into the workforce with the required qualifications. With such advise, the inflation of student loans and expenses it requires for a University student to stick out at least 3 years of their life, AND the lack of companies willing to look into the future and give these young people the opportunity to apply their qualifications during and after their University years, makes it a lose-lose situation all around.

Succession planning for your business required you to look at the current graduates, and really take a step back and ask yourself: how can I use the youth’s energy, fresh qualification and knowledge of today’s world to the advantage of my business to make sure it stand the test of time?

Go on – you may be pleasantly surprised.