Juicy Info

Lately I’ve been digging into what the medium-long term implications of the recession might be. I was browsing the NYTimes this morning and this article on night classes caught my eye.

It reveals that record numbers are attending night schools at community colleges across the US, as consumers of all ages seek to improve their standard of living, achieve aspirations and lead a better life.

But these aren’t just ordinary nightclasses. They take place literally in the early hours of the morning or during night-time (midnight to 2-3 am) – such is the demand for retraining and gaining extra qualifications. Attendance numbers are booming for this kind of study.

On an individual level, it requires an extraordinary amount of willpower and drive to take this on. Beneath the surface though, I think this symbolises how the recession has had a deeper, more profound impact on people’s lives.

To go back and do a degree or retrain to be a nurse in your 50′s is pretty amazing when you are managing it with a job and family life. In addition to a better lifestyle further down the line, it’s about having greater control over one’s life, fulfilling dreams and feeling good about yourself.

Summer is typically a time when new graduates are relishing that the exams are over and looking to the future to embark on their career. I remember this well, but lucky for me back in 1997, the economy was sound and the dot.com era was bringing in a new age of entrepreneurship. I remember being really excited and couldn’t wait to get on the treadmill.

Today, the situation could not be more different. Students looking to enter the workforce face huge uncertainty. How can they get experience? How do they compete against so many for so few jobs? What jobs will be out there in the future? How and when will they pay off their student debt? When can they move out from the parents and gain independence? etc…

These concerns are far from short-term. As reported in The Guardian, the Higher Education Careers Service Unit (Hecsu) highlights that the graduate job market could be depressed for up to four years. Whilst, there are still graduate jobs out there, the number is far diminished forcing new coping mechanisms.

Here we pinpoint, how students are coping in the recession:

1. Gap travel: Gap years are an attractive proposition to gain life experiences and work experience. Graduates are joining the older youth demographics, both with limited financial ties, and going abroad to wait out the recession.
2. Extending studies: The Guardian reported in June that more UK grads are staying on to do post-graduate courses, gain important vocational skills and Masters.
3. Support/advice: Graduates are in need of careers advice more than ever. As well as career services, they are leveraging online tools and social media to support job hunting efforts.
4. Internships: Working as an intern or freelancer is a crucial way to build experience and the CV. But even interning is highly competitive in today’s climate. There is some respite from this as the government launches Building Young Britain, creating funding for internships. The Graduate Talent Pool website connects graduates with companies offering internships, some 2,000 in total.
5. Gap work: Part-time work to pay the bills e.g. retailing, bar work. Unable to find their desirable job, graduates may well have to do 2/3 jobs to survive. Graduate-jobs.com reveals that direct selling has become popular, benefiting the likes of Avon.
6. Family reliance: Undoubtedly, moving back or staying with the parents, will be high on the agenda. Although financially beneficial, loss of independence and freedom is not always conducive to a youthful lifestyle.
7. Cash poor + time-rich = online: It goes without saying really, but this audience will be spending an abundance of time online to help kick start their career. There have been quite a few studies of late underlining how consumers at large are spending more time online in the recession for entertainment, information and communication purposes.

For today’s graduates, it is challenging times. They are being forced to try new things and adapt their lifestyle to survive in more difficult times. The ramifications for brands are just as important. Youth-targeted brands need to provide a supporting arm to graduates to help them navigate these murky waters. Of course, this could be as much about creating something that embodies happiness or entertainment, as it is about providing some real utility to the job-seeking or financial management process.

Perhaps one of the more serious questions is, what will be the medium-long-term impact of a generation that may avoid and may well abhor excessive consumption?  This is a much bigger subject that we can do justice here. An article in the New York Times in January, called Recession Can Change a Way of Life, looks at the deeper implication of the recession on consumer behaviour. Some food for thought.