Money Matters

While I was growing up the economy was pretty much stable. Nothing bad ever seemed to happen to it, my parents both had stable jobs, with my dad in the same one he'd had since he'd joined the workforce age 18.

When I was 14 the first recession in approximately 17 years struck. Apart from the week or so following the Twin Towers disaster the economy had seen very few tremors of a serious nature in a very long time.

I guess human nature crept in and people started to gamble. They thought they were safe and the recession hit. In the past four years I have seen the world I grew up in, which was a safe and stable environment where it was fairly likely you'd be able to get a job, transformed into a crumbling wreck. Part of this is simply the veil of childhood being lifted from my eyes. I can see clearly what was there all along, but that certainly didn't lead to the fairly solid town centre I knew turning into streets of boarded up windows and crummy seasonal stores which seem to be the only things which survive, perhaps due to the fact that they emerge already with a limited duration.

When the recession first hit people said it'll recover quickly it's strong. And then the second recession hit so we're now in a place where no matter what qualifications you've got you'll struggle to find a place as a newcomer in an already developed world. I know this, despite being qualified my boyfriend has been struggling to find permanent work for three years now, relying on a series of temp jobs and hoping to come across something he can keep. In the past year it's looked hopeful he's had a series of longer term temp jobs with smalller breaks in between them.

As of today however the future looks bleaker. It was today announced that the UK economy has once again shrunk. Shrunk at a smaller rate than previously, but none-the-less a negative turn after the apparant growth over the previous quarter. It could be a turning point, with the economy shrinking less it is only to be hoped that soon it will pick up and begin to grow again.

That is all I can hope, because if not, then in three or four years time I'm going to leave university with a degree which may be all but worthless and enter a world of work unable to find a job which is worth the hours of study put in to earn it.

Rowen