Grimsby Job Hunt: 19-Year-Old Cohen Won't Quit
Get the Culture newsletter
Daily culture — film, music, books, the trends and ideas worth your attention. Free.
- Cohen, 19, who has a learning disability, has spent the past year applying to holiday parks, retail, charity shops, and Grimsby Town FC while volunteering at a Scope charity shop and starting a Morrisons placement — but has yet to land paid work
- Co Co Mascots, Cohen's mascot-for-hire business set up last year with help from local graffiti artist Lynsey Powles, has produced a few paid gigs that he says boosted his confidence
- Grimsby was dubbed Britain's "worklessness capital" by the Telegraph due to the share of working-age residents on benefits, and 41% of under-16s in the town live in relative low-income families, according to the article
- Cohen suspects employers reject disabled candidates: "they think the person with a disability is more work," he says, adding that neither he nor anyone at home drives, so he can't look outside town
- Lewis, 35, a trained technician now living in Grimsby's YMCA while awaiting council housing after redundancy and a stretch sofa-surfing, says young people there "don't know who to ask" for careers advice
- Lisa February, 25, co-founded the lowercase theatre in north-east Lincolnshire after rejecting years of advice to leave Grimsby, saying she always wants to come back to the community she grew up in
- The piece is part of the Guardian's "Against the tide" series, a collaboration with documentary photographer Polly Braden profiling life in UK coastal communities
Why it matters: Cohen's search lays bare how a young disabled job seeker in a deindustrialised coastal town faces stacked barriers — collapsing local retail, no car access, and employer bias — even while investing in volunteering and training. A Morrisons placement could convert into a job for him personally, but the structural backdrop (the "worklessness capital" label, 41% child poverty, the closure of the high-street employers that once absorbed workers) shows one hire won't fix a town-level problem.
