In the next hour we will hear how youth unemployment has exceeded 1 million people – an entire generation consigned to the waste bin. According to The Times today, 33% of the population of Merthyr Tydfil are claiming unemployment benefit.
If the upward trend of leaving young people jobless and without a future we will find ourselves in the same boat as Ireland with 31.9% youth unemployment, or Greece with 36.1%.
And what is the government doing about it? Quite honestly very little. News yesterday of regional grants that will bring 40,000 jobs to the West Midlands alone must be welcomed, but these will not happen straight away – they will filter through the system slowly and will do little to affect the hundreds of thousands who will wake up this morning with nothing to do, no money and no future.
It is critical the government acts now to tackle the scourge of youth unemployment by re-opening the Flexible Jobs Fund and offering companies substantial incentives for taking on unemployed young people.
If we are to say we believe in our youth, we must invest in them and not treat them as an after-thought as has happened with this government.
Only we didn't.
ReplyDeleteWhat did the "Flexible Jobs Fund" do to provide permanent or even long-term employment? It has been estimated that the £0.5 billion cost of the programme exceeded the total of the wages earned by the lucky few to get a job through it.
What we need is an environment where there are jobs available and young people have a chance to find and choose one that suits them.