The survey, which collected 704 responses between 15th and 23rd February 2021 reveals that 63% of students have worked since March 2020. Of these, 76% said their ability to earn was affected by the pandemic.

100% of university students in Birmingham said that their ability to find work alongside their studies has been impacted by the pandemic, and the same percentage of students in Edinburgh, Guildford, Bath, Southampton, Salford, Northampton, Leeds, and Canterbury said the same. 

The percentage of students who agreed was much lower in York, Brighton, Nottingham, and Leicester, where only 53%, 61%, 65% (respectively) of students said that they found it hard to find work alongside studies because of the pandemic. 

100% of Birmingham students also said that they had received no support from any government schemes and 87% of students think support from the government has been unsatisfactory.

West Midlands Mayor Andy Street has warned that the pandemic has destroyed 100,000 jobs in Birmingham, Solihull, Coventry and the Black Country.

In a document called Getting the West Midlands Back into Work Andy Street said: ‘In the face of these statistics, it is looking likely that the West Midlands Combined Authority area that I serve as Mayor is set to see 100,000 more people out of work – eradicating the gains of the previous three years.’

‘Many of our young people are facing great difficulties finding work and securing their place within the labour market. In the WMCA area, as we entered the new year, we had 41,160 claimants aged 16-24 – almost 9% of that group.’

Street also stated that ‘at a national level, the economic effects of the crisis have been particularly severe for BAME communities.’ He commented on the fact that ‘every region of the UK has a BAME unemployment rate that is higher than the unemployment rate for white people,’ which he stated was a ‘major problem’ in the West Midlands due to it being the home of ‘the country’s largest BAME population outside of London.’

Finally, Street said: ‘We need to find 100,000 jobs, but we also need to make sure they are spread evenly across the West Midlands, and can be accessed by our region’s youngsters and those from some of the most deprived communities.’

Final year University of Birmingham student Aneesa Ahmed told Redbrick: ‘I found looking for a retail part time job during the pandemic really hard. I applied for a job in the Selly Oak retail park and when I went on their website it said that they had well over five hundred applicants, and that really put me off. I knew I wasn’t going to get it and it really disheartened me.’

They continued to state that they ‘applied to about fifty jobs and never heard back from them’ which is when they decided to ‘give up on finding a retail job in Birmingham during the pandemic.’ 

Another student, Jennifer Prince, told Redbrick that looking for jobs has been ‘more difficult because of lockdown because roles are limited and the limited roles available are very competitive.’ They said: ‘I also found it difficult especially given the first lockdown because I was unsure whether I would be living at home or in Birmingham for a long period of time. I haven’t been largely affected because I have my student loan to fall back on and my family is willing (and able) to support me financially but for students in a more difficult financial situation it mustn’t be easy.’

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