Stagnating wages and rapidly rising rents have led to young workers being disproportionally impacted by the pandemic.
ESRI Researchers say their findings are cause for serious concern.
1. Younger workers have been hardest hit by pandemic job losses, which risk compounding the lingering effects of the financial crisis.
As the figure below shows, falls in employment from 2007 also hit younger workers hardest. pic.twitter.com/PEHlewqsIU
— Barra Roantree (@barratree) May 11, 2021
Young Adults Earning Less Than Predecessors
This new ESRI study shows employment for 15-34 year old's in the final quarter of 2020 was 14 per cent below its pre-pandemic levels.
So that's 112,000 fewer young people in paid work.
But for over 35s it fell by just 6%.
When adjusted for inflation, young adults now are earning less than workers of the same age in the 1990s and 2000s.
ESRI Economist Barra Roantree says the stagnation is concerning:
"Younger workers are bearing the brunt of the labour market."
He adds, "to prevent that having longer run effects, policy makers should make sure there's enough capacity, and ramp up high quality training programmes over the coming months."
"To make sure that people who want to move into a new field can get the training to do so."
Worth remembering:
On top of all this, young Irish people now often have to cope with more precarious work and fewer half-decent job perks, like a pension. https://t.co/gOf5bE5hor— Paul O'Donoghue (@paulodonoghue93) May 11, 2021
We Need Policies To Tackle High Rent
The ESRI has warned that young people could be left behind unless policies to tackle high rents are put in place.
21 year old NUIG student Neasa Gorrell lost her job due to the pandemic:
"Young people are paying upwards of €500 for box rooms."
"It's like a repainted 2011, when young people had no other option but to go abroad."
The ESRI hopes the findings lead to more equitable and fair policies as the country emerges from the pandemic.
