During my experiences in the UK, US, Germany and some other “more western” countries i've made pretty much a similar experience i want to share.
Most companies are hardly giving the younger generation any possibility to become professionals in a field and often hiring people around the age of 40+ to bring in years of experience already.
In the same time the younger generation is framed as “lazy” or “having unreal expectations regarding the job market”.
Most of this countries share the same problem:
“Becoming a nation of the old” – lower birthrates and a lot of young people not considering to even set a child in this world, facing birth and kid-unfriendly environments they don't want to raise children in.
Often planning for a child also means a guaranteed devaluation and impoverishment.
In the same time political decisions (not only regarding worker rights, but also education etc.) are forced trough by an older generation… above the heads of a younger generation.
The retirement age is meanwhile increasing, keeping people longer in their jobs while not giving the younger generation the experience and training they need.
Instead a lot of this countries are planning to solve this issue with guestworkers from other countries – qualified personnel that will then be stolen from other countries that might even need them more.
This whole card house will fall apart soon, considering how many work places will be forced to become smaller due to lacks of qualified personnel filling the spots of the retirees.
Another problem is that guestworkers will still not solve the issue of the nations young staying unqualified.
And people seem to not see the long term problem and only think about their retirement in some
years.
Let me pop that bubble for you:
If a younger generation needs to rebuild the labour market and also get some qualification, there WILL NOT BE any retirement money, since those ressources will be needed to cushion the immense fall that is about to come.
It's an issue that i see isn't talked as much about as it should be.