Second Draft

'Generation Crunch' - A letter of recommendation.

To whom it may concern,

There is scarcely a news article or bulletin these days without the word 'recession' in it, followed by a detailed analysis of how it is affecting Britain's economy, workforce, and more pointedly the increasing numbers of unemployed people found queueing at the job centre every day. A more specific demographic falling under the umbrella of 'unemployed' taking the spotlight recently are the 18-25 year-olds, of which I am a member. There is much speculation, it seems, surrounding the attitudes and outlook of this new 'lost generation' and whether youthful hopefulness is being replaced by world-weary pessimism. As a member of the class of 2009, I would like to voice my opinion on the matter, feeling that I am better qualified than a middle aged journalist with a healthy salary, a semi-detached house in a West London suburb and a holiday home in Cornwall.

Less than a year ago it seemed becoming a member of 'generation crunch' was a positive thing, allowing the arts graduates of 2009 the time to pursue their creativity rather than be, 'lured by fat pay packets into ghastly careers', as Mr Giles Coren of The Times wrote back in February. At the time reading this was fantastic. I can be an artist, a writer, a bohemian, I thought, All I need is a bottle or two of wine, a laptop and some time and before I know it I'll be an opinionated luvvy on Newsnight Review making scathing remarks about the state of British culture. But whilst this apparent freedom seemed positive for the individual concerned, for the rest of society it made 2009's graduates not only unemployed, but rendered unemployable by this perceived flippant attitude.

The inevitable wake-up call from my creative dreams came as soon as I visited the essay submission desk for the final time. Suddenly, once the cotton wool of education that I was so tightly wrapped in began to unravel, the realisation hit that I had an empty bank account, an unbelievable amount of student debt and far too much white space on my CV. A good BA degree was not going to solve my problems and Mr Coren's article became meaningless in the cold harsh light of unemployment. The endless free time I have to be creative is taken up by the constant awareness that I owe the government an incredible amount of money for my education and continue to take more while I look for a job in order to support myself. The 'free' in my "free time" became entirely ironic.

The class of 2009 is not a hoard of hedonistic freeloaders taking their time to 'find themselves' or pursue doomed creative projects until the world of employment finally and inevitably catches up with them, discussing this matter with my peers shows a unanimous agreement on this point. The reality of the situation we are in is hard, alienating and really lonely.

As a University City there are dozens, hundreds, of us queueing at the job centre every week desperate to find work of any kind, and because the reality of unemployment has been made more than apparent, it is more than likely that we would happily give a year or two of our professional lives to a potential employer while we get back on our feet and wait out the recession. The fact that we may have sparse CVs and outdated references should not outweigh our attitude and sincere enthusiasm for employment. We are an investment, not a liability.

And this is why I highly recommend any member of the class of 2009 for a position of employment at your company.

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Hmm, still has kinks I think. Will go away for a while and come back to it for final revision.