Gaby Hinsliff may be right to link the current lack of starter jobs to recent increases in minimum wage and national insurance costs for employers (Do you remember your first crappy job? Today’s young people would wish for half your luck, 20 February). But there’s more to it.
In the 250-plus years between the invention of the water-powered spinning jenny and artificial intelligence, we have developed technology and technique with the primary aim of reducing the number of people necessary to employ for a given amount of output. On a finite planet, the amount of output must eventually stabilise. We cannot maintain for ever the notion that everyone must have a job in order to be allowed to have a life.
Donald Simpson
Rochdale, Greater Manchester
• Reading Sumaiya Motara’s article on job interviews (The brutal hunt for low-paid work: ‘It’s like The Hunger Games – but for a job folding clothes’, 18 February) reminded me of my interview for the post of head of humanities in a secondary modern school in 1971, where I had a friendly chat with the headteacher for 30 minutes, after which he said: “Well, I suppose I’d better ask you a technical question.”
On the basis of my answer to his technical question, I got the job. I suspect that the personal relationship built up over that 30 minutes told him more about me than any test, quiz or game playing could have done. And one aspect of my role involved training pupils to deal with job interviews.
Brian Thomas
Marden, Kent
• The behaviour described by young jobseekers in Sumaiya Motara’s article echoes the findings of the Milgram experiment in 1963, which tested the premise that almost anyone will inflict suffering on another person if sanctioned to do so. Companies using such metrics to identify recruits for work that manifestly does not require such scrutiny or due diligence should be aware of the reputational harm they are likely to incur.
Gavin Greenwood
Brighton, East Sussex
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