The expensive housing and the general financial insecurity that young people feel about starting a family is not unrelated to the shortcomings in the Cypriot and global labor market. Now the problem is the empty shelves, but soon we will realize that a generation has been lost.
When in the spring in the USA a large fast food chain turned the key in the door to open, after the lifting of the restrictive measures brought by the pandemic, it found that it was not the customers who did not return, but its employees. Overcoming the initial shock, it gave bold increases (for industry data) but still failed to become attractive. In the eyes of all, the money generously distributed by US President Joe Baiten to support the unemployed finally entered unjustly, and the market was preparing to take revenge on the “cicadas”. Early in the fall, however, I read that in Oregon the company was “chasing” even fourteen years to fill the gap. At the same time the UK was making world headlines for staff shortages that led to empty supermarket shelves and eventually the army taking to the streets to take over distributions. Now, it is becoming an issue in Cyprus as well.
Of course, it is not now that staff shortages are being recorded. Since the summer, hoteliers and the industries that meet the needs of tourists in general had sounded the alarm. At that time, everyone thought that the phenomenon was temporary. In fact, there were not a few who said “it's good that you have been exploiting the world for so many years or it does not concern our industry that is in demand”. Only things are not so simple. Yes, to some extent it is not “you find with the money you give”, but giving 20% -50% increase and again not finding, that says a lot about different professions. In fact, some of them now pay much better, than “good” positions in the public and private sector. The great German sociologist Max Weber might have told us about the status of these blue-collar professions, which for years now have been devalued in the eyes of society. How we underestimated their salaries, now no one wants these jobs.
The issue, however, is even more complex to answer with oversimplification of 19th century sociology. To the question of where the young people are and why they do not accept the work done by the previous generations, the answer is that the young people are at home. But she is not at home because she is the most educated generation of mankind and does not want to get her hands dirty with hard work. After all, for a few generations, the next ones were much better educated than the previous ones. The problem is that now the job can not give you much more than you have already secured. Who with the basic salary can buy or rent a house? Old with a little extra effort at work and with the help of family, most could get their way. It is now almost futile.
Unable to meet basic needs, this generation remains in the family home and takes care not to acquire other costly responsibilities eg marriage, children, cars. She covers her desires with jobs that do not require effort and can bear to wait for the appointment or the job she dreams of. Many even find part-time jobs online, while others enter the cryptocurrency industry to cover everything they want as soon as it “takes off”. The most studious may continue their academic research and steal the “remnants” of university research projects, and the even more “anxious” may set up startups with the goal of becoming the next Elon Musk. Some may even succeed. However, the point here is that fewer and fewer are left to hold the tray, serve coffee or wash the dishes. And if now the problem is the food that is not served on time, in a few years the problem will be what to do with the homeless, childless, unemployed and disoriented adults. That is why political planning, taxation and the economy must revolve around the needs of the younger generations. The point, however, is that young people do not vote, so it is difficult to see policies that will deflate the expensive roof or encourage them to take their own path. Get ready to lose a generation.
