PROFESSOR DYLAN JONES-EVANS

This week, we saw yet another report demonstrating that the ‘great resignation’ theme which this column has been discussing over the last six months continues to dominate the future of the workplace. The “Global Workforce Hopes and Fears Survey 2022” from professional services firm PWC questioned over 52,000 adults who are in work or active in the labour market on a range of issues affecting their future. It found that, as with many other studies, employees are increasingly looking for new opportunities elsewhere.  According to the study - which was undertaken in 44 countries across the world -  one in five workers are likely to switch to a new employer in the near future with those aged between 18 and 41 being more likely to take that step to change their careers.  Of those who are looking for new positions, 44% are less likely to find their job fulfilling, 43% don’t believe their team cares about them, and 41% don’t feel that their manager listens to them.  More re...

Earlier this month, this column examined some of the reasons behind the so-called “Great Resignation” phenomenon that had seriously affected the US economy and examined some of the reasons as to why employees were leaving their jobs following the Covid pandemic. Interestingly, a new study on mental health in the workplace by the accountants Deloitte found that 28% of employees have either left in 2021 or are planning to leave their jobs in 2022, with 61% citing poor mental health as the reason they are leaving.  Why is this happening now? The report seems to suggest that job insecurity due to the impact of the pandemic meant that many had delayed switching their employers or leaving to start a new position or a new business.  However, the opportunity to do something different in a buoyant jobs market  as opposed to continuing with long hours and increased stress in their current position has resulted in nearly 30% of the workforce leaving their current employer. And at a ...

Following the last recession, it was young people who bore the brunt of the unemployment crisis that was inevitable following the economic downturn.  Whilst a report from the IMF has recently suggested that the long-term economic damage from the pandemic will not be as severe as that left by the financial crisis more than a decade ago, many believe that young people will still be those most affected by the decline in economic activity. Much of this has to do with the fact that there tends to be more young people employed in those sectors such as wholesale, retail, accommodation and food services that have been hardest hit by the Covid-19 pandemic. As a result, they have experienced the highest drop in working hours of any age group and a massive decline in the vacancies available. As a result, there may well be a longer lasting impact on opportunities in the labour market for young people despite an expected economic recovery. Earlier this month, a report from The Prince’s Trust an...

During the last global recession of 2009, the group of individuals most affected by the labour market conditions at the time were people aged between 16 and 24, with youth unemployment in the UK going above one million during that crisis.  It was a pattern repeated in almost every nation in the world and whilst the global economy recovered, it would seem that young people, as a group, remain a vulnerable part of the jobs market.  According to the International Labour Organisation (ILO), 13.6% of all young people (267 million) were not employed or engaged in education (or classified as NEETs) at the end of 2019, a far higher figure than experienced before the last financial crisis over a decade ago.  The ILO has also estimated that more than one in six of those young people working prior to the Covid-19 outbreak are no longer in jobs and those employed have had a 23% reduction in their working time. Within the UK, data suggests that there is still a significant group of yo...

In recent years, many young people have felt that powerbrokers and politicians across the World have consistently failed to listen to their concerns. As a result, there has been an increasing apathy by this group towards critical political decisions. These include last year’s Brexit Referendum which could, if young voters had turned out to vote, have resulted in the UK remaining as part of the European Union. Indeed, when young people did decide to mobilise as a political force during the last general Election over concerns such as tuition fees, it was enough to stop Theresa May’s Government from gaining a majority. Such a trend of increased activism may be set to continue globally given that over half of the world’s population is currently under the age of 30, are slowly waking up to the fact that their collective voice can make a difference and that increasingly, their views will need to be taken into account before important decisions are made. That is why politicians fro...

A number of academic research studies have shown that if we can get children to consider enterprise at an early age then they are more likely to consider entrepreneurship as a career when they get older. That perception was reinforced by recent research from Barclays Bank which showed that there are a significant number of aspiring entrepreneurs amongst pupils in UK schools who are keen to use what they are learning to create new firms. It showed that 42 per cent of youngsters currently aged between 8 and 16 plan to start a business when they’re older and if supported properly, this could create 100,000 new firms, 400,000 jobs and £23.3 billion for the UK economy. Whether this is really the case remains to be seen but at least in Wales we are already active in encouraging greater enterprise amongst our schoolchildren. \ Only last week, I went to see the final of Enterprise Troopers at the Millennium Centre in Cardiff. This is an annual competition run by Big Ideas Wales -...

Twenty-one years ago this week, I was appointed to my first professorial chair in entrepreneurship at the University of Glamorgan. Since then, I have been lucky to have had a wonderful career which has taken me across the World and presented me with incredible opportunities to engage with so many individuals and organisations and hopefully help make a difference to people’s lives. One of those opportunities that I value tremendously is my annual visit to Dublin, where I am privileged to chair the International Assessment Board for the Irish Research Council’s Enterprise Partnership Scheme. This is an innovative initiative where the Council, working with private enterprises and public bodies, awards scholarships to the most promising researchers in Ireland, offering them the opportunity to gain real world experience by working on a project with a non-academic organisation. In return, industry gets access to an exceptional pool of competitively selected, high-calibre researche...

Last week saw the beginning of the summer holidays for thousands of children across Wales. But with the workforce changing considerably over the last twenty years and both parents working, this six-week break to become a large financial burden on hard-pressed families. In fact, a recent survey showed that parents will spend an average of £1200, to keep their youngsters entertained during the six week break. This not only includes the cost of day trips during the holidays but also includes additional childcare whilst parents are working. In fact, this amount would be higher if nearly two thirds of parents did not turn to grandparents or friends for help. And whilst the papers are full of “free things to do with your kids” articles, the inevitability is that most families will end up paying for activities over the next few weeks. Sensing a commercial opportunity, various summer camp type activities have sprung up over the last few years in the UK. Following the US model, where ...

As you read this, I will have arrived back in Wales from a week of intensive visits to the USA. It began in Silicon Valley with meetings at Microsoft, Electronic Arts, the Irish Innovation Centre, as well as conversations with a couple of Welsh-run technology companies in the San Francisco Bay Area. We then flew to Missouri in the middle of the country to meet up with the Kauffman Foundation, the World’s largest charity devoted to entrepreneurship and finished with a series of meetings at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) on the East Coast of America. It was a hard slog, especially in crossing various time zones during the week but was well worth it, especially in terms of partnerships with both academia and business in areas such as educational technology and enterprise development. However, one of the most eye-opening experiences we had was nothing directly to do with the business community but, nevertheless, has the real potential to make an enormous differen...

In February, I met a quiet and unassuming young man, Thabani Nyoni, who explained his vision for a new world music festival.  Zimbabwean born Nyoni has lived in London since the age of five and I was immediately struck by his idea that creativity and diversity can help the Welsh economy. Nyoni is one of the founders of the Kaya Festival taking place in the Faenol estate from the 1st to the 3rd of June. Bryn Terfel's Faenol festival no longer exists but that doesn’t deter this music entrepreneur in the slightest. He chose the venue for his new venture after attending the Radio 1 Big Weekend in 2010.  Now with backing from Welsh Government, Gwynedd Council and the Arts Council, his vision has become reality. This week, Ron Jones, founder of Wales's largest television company Tinopolis, wrote a salient article in his capacity as chairman of the Welsh Government creative sector advisory panel. He said that “Around the world, governments are realising the creative indust...

For a man who is not shy in courting publicity, it is not surprising to see Sir Richard Branson in the business press again this week. Yet his audacious purchase of Northern Rock, soon to be merged with Virgin Money , may have overshadowed another more important development namely the publication of a report sponsored by Virgin Media entitled “Control Shift: the Rise of Young Entrepreneurs”. Through the Control Shift campaign , hundreds of young entrepreneurs have been consulted by Branson’s team on what can be done to develop and encourage a new generation of businesspeople in this country. By challenging current thinking, they have developed a set of proposals that are a wake-up call to all politicians and policymakers who want to reinvigorate the economy. For too long, entrepreneurship has been seen as a last resort policy by many to economic development and unemployment. Yet there is overwhelming evidence that start-ups are the job creators of the economy and whilst entrepreneu...