Employment woes for young people are reflected in the latest ONS Labour Market statistics, By YEUK Youth Ambassador Jack
Today 21/01/2015 we seen the release of the January Labour Market stats from the Office Of National Statistics (ONS) relaying the data from the last quarter of 2014 which makes for very encouraging reading for the current coalition government. Whilst overall Unemployment rates have fallen below 6% for the first time since the coalition came into power, 37,000 people overall have moved into employment since August 2014, with the total figure now standing at 30.8 million. In addition to this 700,000 vacancies have also became available, 127,000 more than the year before and the highest figure since 2001.
At Youth Employment UK, we welcome any progress in returning people back into secure employment, that enables a meaningful contribution to the economy. However, with 27% of under-25s overall still Not in Education, Employment or Training (NEET) in some form, taking into account those who may be in full-time education, young people still need alternative measures and innovation from policy makers and employers alike to curb the continuing stagnation. As the National Youth Agency observed from their Twitter posts, youth unemployment on the whole from September – November 2014 has increased from 13.9% to 15.1%. In that space of time employment has fallen for this age group by 84,000 and unemployment as a result has increased by another 30,000.
We also find it staggering that ONS data into the young labour market shows that the North of the country is still fairing disproportionately worse than counterpart figures in the South East. In 2013, data shown those in the North East had overall 25% of their young population unemployed, as opposed to just 15% in the South. Northern Ireland and Wales too were seeing similarly bleak figures.
While we appreciate that youth unemployment is better than that of 2013 by 142,000 and there’s more full-time university students economically inactive than ever before at 43%, there are two sides in this report. The country is rapidly making strides in its overall recovery and are in a better place perhaps than 2010. More of those not in full-time education are in work, as opposed to being NEET. The UK’s Young people still need of a coordinated solution and for their needs to be listened to in order to have a good start in their working life.
So far, the answer to getting youth back on the same track as the bigger picture is still in question as another General Election approaches.
If you have an opinion on today’s youth unemployment statistics get in touch with the team
or tweet: @YEUK2012 @YEUKYouth
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