‘I graduated from a top London university – 100 job applications later I’m still unemployed’

On paper, it should have straight forward for Emily Shulman to secure a job upon graduating from her journalism master’s degree at Goldsmiths University in London .

The 22-year-old had already achieved an undergraduate degree in criminology and sociology from the University of Nottingham, and has a host of work experiences and internships under her belt.

However, more than 100 applications later and she remains unemployed and is among the one million young people struggling to settle into a career.

“At first it was instant rejections but as I did more work experience, I got more interviews but ultimately everything was leading to nothing,” she told The Independent .

“I’ve tried different approaches such as reaching out to people on LinkedIn, applying online, emailing - but so often I’ve been ghosted.”

Recent official figures showed the number of vacancies in the UK jobs market fell to a five-year low in the three months to July.

The latest Office for National Statistics (ONS) survey found that small firms may not be recruiting because of increased labour costs and other business expenses, while the war in the Middle East has caused economic uncertainty and rising living costs.

This has particularly impacted young people, with the latest data, published earlier this year, showing the number of people aged between 16 and 24 and not in employment, education or training – so-called Neets – was at nearly one million.

“I think a lot of people are in the same position as me,” Ms Shulman said. “My sister is one year older and she did a law conversion and couldn’t get a training contract. She’s ended up moving to Manchester and doing something law-related but not what she really wanted to do.

“A lot of my friends from my master’s are still unemployed. It’s so hard anyways going from living independently in university to living with your parents. The cost of London makes socialising so hard, going on a night out together is especially hard when you have no income.”

She has since carried out a number of unpaid internships in order to gain as much work experience as possible, but says the job market is “oversaturated” and that many advertisements require several years of experience for junior roles.

Another issue named by those applying is the presence of “ghost jobs”. This refers to the practice of employers or recruiters advertising roles which may already have been filled or may not have existed in the first place.

The purpose of this is often to build a pool of candidates for future hiring, or to keep a list of names incase the recent hire doesn’t work out.

A report published by City Hall in April found that artificial intelligence was threatening at least a million jobs in London alone, mainly administrative roles and jobs in areas such as IT and data analysis.