The brutal hunt for low-paid work

At 10.30am Zahra sat in a Preston business centre attaching marshmallows to sticks of spaghetti, one of 30 candidates split into groups of five and asked to build food towers. She had already written a 10‑paragraph online application and completed anagrams and quizzes to reach this two‑hour assessment.

The role was a Wingstop crew position paying £10.80 an hour; a week later she received a short rejection email and said it felt like 'a waste of time'. Jobseekers face a tight market: UK unemployment reached 5.2%, and the rate for 18‑24s rose to 14%. Martin Warnes of Reed.co.uk says rising costs for employers have prompted firms to 'de‑risk the recruitment process' by putting more emphasis on pre‑employment screening, which shifts the burden onto applicants and can feel mismatched to low pay.

Young candidates describe group tasks that often bear little relation to the work.

United Kingdom, Preston

low paid, assessment tasks, wingstop, pre employment, recruitment process, jobseekers, unemployment rate, young candidates, group tasks, reed