Why inexperienced workers can’t get entry-level jobs

By Kate Morgan20th September 2021. “Entry-level” jobs used to be the way for new graduates to enter the workforce. But many are now requiring prior experience.

    As anyone who’s graduated from university or applied for their first job in recent years can attest to, something
new – and alarming – has happened to entry-level jobs: they’ve disappeared.

    A recent analysis of close to 4 million jobs posted on LinkedIn since late 2017 showed that 35% of postings for
“entry-level” positions asked for years of prior relevant work experience. That requirement was even more common in
[5] certain industries. More than 60% of listings for entry-level software and IT Services jobs, for instance, required three
or more years of experience. In short, it seems entry-level jobs aren’t for people just entering the workforce at all.
    And while that first job is harder than ever to get, it’s also more important than ever, says Alan Seals, an associate
professor of economics at Auburn University, US. It may be the bottom-most rung on the employment ladder, but a
worker’s first position sets the tone for their career.
[10]     “The most important time in your career is the first three years,” he says. “The quality of your first employer really
matters. So, how do you get that first job?”
    The simple answer is workers need something more than motivation or a college degree to enter the workforce
now, whether it’s lots of internships, or the connections to get around a complex application process without an
algorithm weeding them out. But not everybody has access to those advantages, and the result is that workers are
[15] being left behind. 

The rise of the internship

    An ever-growing internship market means more young people are fleshing out their resumes before they even
leave university, says Seals, who notes many students are now getting their first internship after first year.
    “Internships are now the entry level,” he says. “Most of the students in college are doing or trying to do internships,
[20] and now it’s increasingly common to do more than one.”
    Seales says this fact impacts the entry-level job market on multiple fronts. First, companies can save money by
using interns to do that work without having to pay junior employees; the more interns a company has, the fewer
entry-level jobs it’s likely to open.
    Second, because applicants with one or more internships on their resume aren’t tough to come by, those who
[25] don’t have internship experience are left out in the cold. That can happen to students who can’t afford an unpaid or
low-paid internship, or those who have trouble securing one.
    “In some cases, you need to have had an internship to get an internship. It’s also tough if you’re an ethnic
minority,” says Seals. A February 2020 study he co-authored showed that employers are “less likely to respond to
[intern] applicants with Black-sounding names” and much more likely to hire those who’ve had internships before.
[30]     Add to that the fact that the vast majority of internship opportunities are geographically located near major cities,
meaning those who don’t already live there or can’t relocate are out of luck. [...]

Source: https://www.bbc.com/worklife/article/20210916-why-inexperienced-workers-cant-get-entry-level-jobs. Accessed on: October 10, 2021. Adapted.

TEXTO

Noah’s Ark found? Researchers believe this mountain is biblical ship’s final resting place

    Ark investigators believe they have found traces of a wooden structure on Mount Ararat, also known as Agri Mountain, in Agri, Turkey. American researcher Professor Paul Esprante said he intends finding more evidence to prove the Ark landed there. He was one of 108 scientists from Turkey and around the world speaking at the three-day International Symposium of Mount Ararat and Noah‘s Ark in Agri, which looks at evidence put forward for the Ark's final resting place.

    He said: "My purpose is to visit the sites around the mountain to find clues about catastrophic events in the past. I think that rigorous, serious scientific work is needed in the area, and I would like to collaborate in that. We have technical resources and we can work together with local experts. The result of my findings will be published in books, publications and journals, but at this point it is too early to know what we are going to find. Once the scientific community knows about the existence of Noah‘s Ark in Mount Ararat, we can make it available to the general public."

    Dr Andrew Snelling wrote on Answersingenesis.org: "Several teams have continued searching for the real Ark. Most of them have focused on Mount Ararat in northeastern Turkey, where eyewitness accounts of a wooden structure have spurred interest for centuries. The biblical reference to ‗mountains of Ararat‘ as the landing site of the Ark suggests those mountains formed well before the Flood ended. The Flood was a global catastrophe that totally reshaped the earth‘s geology, and the earth‘s surface has continued to change since then. Perhaps the geology of the modern Mount Ararat region sheds light on whether we should be looking for Noah‘s Ark on that mountain."

    Dr Snelling is not convinced it is the right location. "Mount Ararat is thus a post-Flood volcano, which continued to erupt, most recently less than 200 years ago. Thus, from my perspective as a biblical geologist, I do not expect to find Noah‘s Ark on Mount Ararat. Instead, it must have landed on another high mountain in the region at that time."

    There have been claims made in previous years for evidence of the ark being found on the peak. In April 2010 a team of evangelical Christian explorers claimed to find the remains of Noah‘s ark beneath snow and volcanic debris on Mount Ararat. Turkish and Chinese explorers from a group called Noah‘s Ark Ministries International made the claim. Filmmaker Eung Wing-cheung said: "It‘s not 100 percent that it is Noah‘s ark, but we think it is 99.9 percent that this is it."

    However, the claim was not widely accepted or confirmed. Paul Zimansky, then an archaeologist specialising in the Middle East at Stony Brook University in New York State, said: "I don‘t know of any expedition that ever went looking for the ark and didn‘t find it."

(Available at https://www.express.co.uk/news/weird/871000/Noah-s-Ark-found-Mount-Ararat-Turkey)