While the economy will eventually recover, their career prospects may not pick up at the same time. Young people entering the workforce during a recession are more likely to be earning less or be out of work than those starting their career in normal times. The same is true even five years after the downturn has taken place, according to the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS), another think tank.
While those further along in their careers who see their incomes drop will have savings to rely on, young people are much less likely to have built up a safety net. A quarter of 18 to 34-year-olds have no savings at all, data from Nationwide Building Society have shown.
How to increase your chances of success
Pick up skills
While the financial situation may seem dire, there are ways to improve your prospects. Adzuna’s Andrew Hunter suggested young people use their time in lockdown to pick up valuable skills that could boost their career afterwards.
“There are over 10,000 jobs advertised on our site that require language skills,” he said. Roles which require European languages such as French and German typically pay 10pc more than the national average, while jobs for speakers of languages such as Mandarin or Cantonese can command much more.
He also recommended they consider picking up a computer programming language such as Java. “These skills are really in-demand and the technology sector had – and still has – the most available jobs compared to applicants,” Mr Hunter added.
They could look to move into employment sectors that have been given a boost by the crisis, such as healthcare services and the police. Jayne Rowley of Prospects, a graduate careers service, said that recruitment in uniformed services had been untouched by the pandemic.
“Students considering their future careers should look to careers in scientific research too, and pharmaceuticals in particular – the importance of which has been highlighted by Covid-19,” she added.