Long-terms trends for youth unemployment

Youth unemployment showed a welcome fall in the latest official unemployment figures, but a recent TUC analysis shows the long-term trend has been up.

Despite a 13,000 fall in the number of unemployed 18- to 24-year-olds, there are still 813,000 young people without a job, latest figures show.

However, TUC findings — published ahead of the latest unemployment figures — showed that in the last 12 years, the number of 18- to 24-year-olds who are out of work has risen by 78%, while unemployment across all age groups has increased by only 42%.

Worryingly, the number of young people who have been unemployed for more than a year has increased since 2000 by an enormous 874% (from 6,260 to 60,955), and has risen by 264% in the last year alone.

In comparison, on average across all working age groups, long-term unemployment has risen by 50% since 2000, indicating just how hard young people have been hit by the recession and reduced educational opportunities, says the TUC.

TUC general secretary Brendan Barber said: “Our young people are already facing a toxic combination of increasing unemployment, high tuition fees and inadequate government support for those people out of work.”

http://ons.gov.uk/ons/dcp171778_265818.pdf

www.tuc.org.uk/economy/tuc-21125-f0.cfm