Recently, a study by London's City University looked at the lives of 9,000 26-year-olds born in the same week and divided them into three groups: getting on, getting by getting nowhere.

The getting on type is university educated with middle class origins. Part of the Friends generation, they have postponed marriage in favour of career. The getting by type has fewer qualifications and limited prospects but is in a relationship, often with children. Finally, the getting nowhere type is often on welfare, has no qualifications or training, lives at home or is a single parent and is anxious, depressed and often ill.

These types may be interesting to read about but deciding who's hot and who's not with reference to a television show is a ruthless kind of research. Friends, with its angst-ridden but affluent twenty-somethings, is constructed around the very things that make being educated and middle class so dispiriting: the dearth of decent jobs, being stuck in entry level positions long after bright-eyed eagerness has dissipated and having middle class aspirations in an ever-widening society.

Many of the generation, of which I am one, are in casual positions that lack the security that even McDonald's can provide. Who now except Ronald McDonald will promise benefits, promotion prospects and annual reviews? Today, few people know whether they will have a job next month or next year.

Divorced from considerations of how good an employee might be, this culture is a pure, Marxist equation which does not pay lip service to notions of employer responsibility. Many of my generation are working harder, taking home less money and living in terminal insecurity.

And, if losing a job is easy today, how much harder it is to actually land one. Despite the obligatory degree and relevant experience, companies are increasingly demanding further qualifications, even for entry-level positions. Many companies will have you write an assignment or give a presentation to managers as a second interview. The company gets business advice that would usually carry a hefty consultant's fee. After all this, the lucky applicant can rarely afford a buoyant social life.

Job applications should involve some effort and nobody has the right to a permanent position with holidays and a pension plan. The problem is that Irish companies are using casual workers so `accidentally' that this group makes up a larger proportion of the workforce than is normal in other countries. There are a great many people who have only a foothold in the labour market and there are thousands of companies who have little or no interest in developing their human resources.

There are very few of us keeping up with the Tiger. It's a jungle out there.