At 23, I’m exhausted and drained after applying for hundreds of jobs without success

Liam Smith has a degree in physics from a top university – but despite applying for “hundreds” of jobs since his graduation two years ago, he remains without full-time work.

The 23-year-old from Lincolnshire, who dreams of working in renewable energy, says he feels “exhausted and drained from the process of trying to find employment.

Liam has struggled to get his foot in the door despite starting to apply for roles before he even finished his studies a the University of Sheffield in 2024.

He’s sent applications for roles all over the UK, and has thrown his hat into the ring for a huge range of possible opportunities – not just in the field he wants to work in.

But he says he’s still had no luck finding anything permanent.

“It’s very draining. The process feels impersonal and a lot of the time you just get ghosted. There is no correspondence from employers and if you do get feedback, it is very generic and not specific to you.

“I did everything right and what people say you should do. I tried really hard in school, got good grades and went to a good university. I have a degree and I am still struggling,” he added.

While he has been trying to secure full-time employment, Liam has picked up some temporary jobs, but says even those have proven difficult to secure.

He is currently trying to get a paid placement through STEM Returners – a company which organises paid placements specifically for people want to come back to work after a career break.

However, the company said it was now seeing more and more younger people and graduates come to it for a way into the world of work.

‘Lost generation’ of young jobseekers

Liam’s story comes as a new review lays bare the challenge that young people are facing finding work.

Former minister Alan Milburn has warned “we are at risk of a lost generation,” with young adults facing a “perfect storm” of issues.

And his review comes as figures show that more than a million young people are not in education, employment or training, which is the highest level in more than 12 years.

One of those is Khalid Issa, a 24-year-old from Southampton. He said on some days he has applied for 15 to 20 jobs, but has not had a single interview this month.

Over the last few months, he said an interview for a shop assistant role at a mobile company was cancelled at the last minute, and a bar that invited him for a trial shift as a safety steward did not proceed with a job offer.

Khalid, who has been on Universal Credit for the last two years, said he has been “constantly looking for work” and feels like “giving up”.

“These job interviews keep on declining me… I just feel stuck,” he told The i Paper. “It’s not only me…There are millions of young teenagers that suffer from the same exact thing.”

Khalid said he is one of the young people “trying to do the right thing in life, stay out of trouble, stay out of jail”. But he claimed he is not getting enough help from the Job Centre.

He now has support from the charity No Limits Help, which he said has “helped me much more than the Job Centre has done in years”.

Khalid and Liam both said the job market has declined over the last few years.

Khalid said it was “easy” to find a job in a warehouse three years ago, while Liam feels a lot of junior positions have begun to disappear, which is creating the biggest barrier to entry.

“It fees like a lot of entry level roles are just being done by AI now and that feels short-sighted to me,” said Liam. “In a few years we are going to have swathes of young people coming through who haven’t gained any experience because AI has been doing those jobs where they could be learning.”

He says many of his peers are in similar situations.

The Labour Party previously unveiled a package of employment reforms aimed at getting more people in Britain into work, which includes the Job Centre system being transformed into a new national jobs and careers service.

Prime Minister Keir Starmer called Milburn’s report “sobering” and said he would work “on what more needs to be done” to tackle problems.