Young people take big hit in the recession

Young people and men are among the groups most affected so far by the recession, says a joint report from the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC), the Government Equalities Office and the Department for Work and Pensions.

The study examines the impact of the recession across various groups in Great Britain, looking at gender, race, age and disability. Based on the Labour Market Survey, Monitoring the impact of the recession on various demographic groups, finds that while the current economic crisis is having an adverse effect on both men and women, unemployment rates have risen faster for men. In the year to March 2009, the rise was 2.4 percentage points to 8.1% for men, compared to a 1.4 percentage points rise to 6.4% for women.

And it finds that the unemployment rate for young people aged between 18 and 24 has soared to 16.2%. This is up 4.2 percentage points in the period and is more than double the rate for the population as a whole which went up 1.9 percentage points to 7.3%.

However, the research also finds that jobless rates among disabled people, older people and ethnic minorities, have increased at a slower pace than for the overall population — rising by 1.0, 1.3 and 0.5 percentage points respectively.

Chair of the EHRC, Trevor Phillips, warned that the report “is just a snapshot and that the effects of the downturn could easily spread”.

www.equalityhumanrights.com/uploaded_files/monitoring-impact-recession-demographic-groups.pdf