Unemployment starts to drop for under-25s
YOUTH unemployment has dropped this year, government figures released yesterday showed.
There were 646,000 unemployed 16 to 24 year-olds in the first three months of the year, down 40,000 from the previous quarter.
Including students who are looking for work but unable to land a job, the figure is closer to a million, at 935,000 young people.
Yet this figure also fell in the three months to March, down 30,000, providing some positive news for young Brits.
The level of youth unemployment, while falling, is still causing concern in many quarters. One in five young people are unemployed, including job-seeking students. Excluding students, 18.3 per cent of people aged 16 to 24 are unemployed.
“Youth unemployment damages people’s employment prospects for years to come,” said Sam Bowman of the Adam Smith Institute.
“A five-year plan ignores the human cost of unemployment – Britain needs reforms to get it back to work today.” The government should relax employment regulations and the minimum wage in order to boost job creation for young people, Bowman urged.