{"id":40,"date":"2015-01-16T15:31:10","date_gmt":"2015-01-16T15:31:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.lboro.ac.uk\/crsp\/?p=40"},"modified":"2015-01-16T15:31:10","modified_gmt":"2015-01-16T15:31:10","slug":"employment-growth-does-not-mean-a-socially-acceptable-standard-of-living-for-many-young-adults","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.lboro.ac.uk\/crsp\/2015\/01\/16\/employment-growth-does-not-mean-a-socially-acceptable-standard-of-living-for-many-young-adults\/","title":{"rendered":"Employment growth does not mean a socially acceptable standard of living for many young adults"},"content":{"rendered":"

At the end of 2014, we learned that joblessness in the UK reached its lowest<\/a> since the beginning of the financial crisis of 2008.\u00a0\u00a0 According to the ONS, unemployment is now 6 per cent<\/a>, having reached its peak at 8 per cent in 2009. This seems to be good news, especially for young adults who have been affected by job loss during the recession. However, higher employment prospects do not necessarily mean having the income necessary to achieve a socially acceptable standard of living.<\/p>\n

The Prince\u2019s Trust just released a study<\/a> highlighting that young adults who are out of work are at risk of becoming socially isolated. This resonates with the latest findings of our Household Below a Minimum Income Standard (MIS) report<\/a>, which indicates that almost 85 per cent of out-of-work adults under 35 years of age do not have the income necessary to achieve a socially acceptable standard of living, and 56 per cent of them have incomes below half MIS, a level where it is very difficult to make ends meet. Not being able to afford an adequate living standard could lead to isolation, as illustrated by a woman who took part in one of our research groups as part of the MIS project<\/a>, \u201cliving on your own is very lonely and you do need to socialise.\u00a0 You do need to socialise otherwise you become a hermit\u201d.<\/p>\n

Having insufficient income for a socially acceptable standard of living, however, is not only a problem for unemployed people but also for those who are employed. \u00a0Half of adults under 35 years of age working part-time are below MIS but more than a third of them have incomes below half of MIS.\u00a0 Self-employment does not present a better picture: self-employed young adults have seen their risk of falling below MIS increase from 37 per cent in 2008\/09 to 48 per cent in 2012\/13.<\/p>\n

For adults over 35, the risk of not having adequate incomes is overall lower than for younger adults.\u00a0 However, they have seen the risk increased regardless of their working status since the crisis hit.\u00a0 Unemployed adults over 35 saw the risk of not having the income needed to live a socially acceptable standard of living increase from 69 per cent in 2008\/09 to 75 per cent in 2012\/13.\u00a0 Those self-employed and those working part-time saw the risk increase from 36 and 44 per cent to 37 and 46 per cent respectively.<\/p>\n

The government\u2019s economic forecast presents a positive picture for 2015, with overall growth and a reduction in unemployment.\u00a0 We still have to see if these projections materialise in the following months.\u00a0 In the meantime, the number of single working age adults finding difficult to achieve a socially acceptable standard of living has been on the rise.\u00a0 And, as one of the participants in our research groups remarked, \u201cwho wants to go to work every day just to pay for your gas, electricity and have nothing social?\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

At the end of 2014, we learned that joblessness in the UK reached its lowest since the beginning of the financial crisis of 2008.\u00a0\u00a0 According to the ONS, unemployment is now 6 per cent, having reached its peak at 8 per cent in 2009. This seems to be good news, especially for young adults who […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":316,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[6,13],"tags":[21,24,26,28],"class_list":["post-40","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-households-below-mis","category-mis","tag-employment","tag-income","tag-living-standards","tag-mis"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.lboro.ac.uk\/crsp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.lboro.ac.uk\/crsp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.lboro.ac.uk\/crsp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lboro.ac.uk\/crsp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/316"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lboro.ac.uk\/crsp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=40"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lboro.ac.uk\/crsp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.lboro.ac.uk\/crsp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=40"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lboro.ac.uk\/crsp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=40"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lboro.ac.uk\/crsp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=40"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}