Sticky inflation, rising bills, and interest rate hikes have plunged the UK into a deep cost-of-living crisis, and the country’s youngest workers, in their twenties, face exorbitant housing costs, weak job prospects, and heavy student debt, reports Bloomberg. Wages for graduate jobs have fallen as inflation has risen, and the tax burden is the highest since World War II. Housing is increasingly out of reach, particularly in London, and private rental prices are rising. The impact of the pandemic has also affected student loans and health issues among young workers. “Without productivity growth, we’re not going to see the real wage growth or the kind of improvement in living standards that younger generations previously expected over their lifetime,” observes Sophie Hale, principal economist at the Resolution Foundation, an economic think tank. “High inequality in the UK is causing issues for younger generations, but it’s particularly for lower- and middle-income households where that combination of high inequality and really slow growth is a particularly toxic combination,” she says. “They’ve seen this really big decline in relative living standards over the past of decade and a half.”

Bloomberg