It used to be safe to assume that if you worked hard at university and got a degree, you’d get a good job. Not anymore!

Currently youth unemployment in Europe ranges from 17% in Germany to over 60% in Spain. More than half of US graduates can’t find work to match their qualifications, unless they’re engineers. China’s millions of graduates are ousted by robots as wages climb.

And it’s not just the young wage-earners that are feeling the impact. Sizeable consumer spending occurs in the 18-35 year-old-segment as they buy homes and start families. Without jobs, that consumer market evaporates, leading to more cut-backs. GDP is under pressure from the top and bottom.

Older workers are living longer and can’t afford to retire, and as governments extend the pensionable age to 68 or 70, there’s even less room to maneuver. You can’t simply replace the experienced with the young – it’s not good for business!

Economic growth is unlikely to recover for the next five years, so job creation opportunities are limited. Underemployed graduates and young jobless workers have only one option – to become entrepreneurs.

But can the topsy-turvy economies of today handle so many self-starters? Where will all the funding come from? And can the depressed markets handle all their innovative products and services? The future is so… interesting!