TUC warns of youth unemployment crisis

12 Oct 10
The Trades Union Congress has warned that a continued increase in short-term unemployment for young people could lead to a ‘jobs crisis’.

By Jaimie Kaffash

12 October 2010

The Trades Union Congress has warned that a continued increase in short-term unemployment for young people could lead to a ‘jobs crisis’. 

Unemployment figures, to be published by the Office for NationalStatistics tomorrow, will show that short-term unemployment for 18 to 24-year-olds has increased by 43,000. This is compared with a decrease for 25 to 49-year-olds.

A total of 192,000 people aged 18 to 24 have been out of work for over a year, the statistics show – the highest number since 1995. The TUC warns that there are a decreasing number of job vacancies and, of those available, a large number are in professional and scientific activities and therefore not open to school and university leavers.

TUC general secretary Brendan Barber criticised the government’s decision to axe its job-creation scheme, the Future Jobs Fund. ‘At the moment, it appears there are simply not enough jobs for young people to do,’ he said. ‘It is therefore particularly alarming that the government has cut funding for the Future Jobs Fund, which would have provided an additional 90,000 positions for unemployed young people across the country.’

John Philpott, chief economic adviser at the Chartered Institute of Personnel andDevelopment, told Public Finance that short-term youth unemployment is ‘almost already in crisis proportions’. He warned that ‘it will get worse before it gets better’.

‘The main reason is that a lot of the improvement in the early part of this year was because of the Future Jobs Fund and the previous government’s job creation measures were targeted at the youth market. These has been withdrawn and the market is going to be weakening,’ he said.

He added that school leavers have been hardest hit by the economic downturn, partly because university leavers are having to take roles that are below their qualifications.

 

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