by René Lavanchy
The TUC and former Bank of England economist David Blanchflower joined forces this week to call on the Government to save young people from becoming a ‘lost generation’ through long-term unemployment.
Figures released this week show the rate of joblessness has risen slower than expected, with 2.469 million people out of work in the three months to August, according to the Office of National Statistics. But 946,000 of Britain’s unemployed were aged 16-24, over 38 per cent of the jobless population.
TUC research has also found that of those young unemployed, over one-third again – 366,000 people – have been out of work for over six months.
General secretary Brendan Barber said: “This is a crisis for our young people. Prolonged periods of joblessness permanently damage careers and without continued government investment we risk losing this generation, who are vital to our future labour market performance.”
David Blanchflower added: “Spells of unemployment, especially ones of long duration, hurt young people later in their working lives… The TUC is right to focus on the young. We need to prevent these young people from becoming a lost generation.”
According to the TUC, the West Midlands has the highest rate of youth unemployment at 26.7 per cent, followed by the North East at 22.2 per cent.
Ministers have sought to soak up the rate of joblessness through the future jobs fund announced in this year’s Budget, which pays employers to create new jobs for young people. But there are only funds for a total of 150,000 jobs.
