The Staggers

The New Statesman’s rolling politics blog

Youth unemployment heads for a million

There are now 991,000 young people out of work, the highest level since records began in 1992.

By George Eaton Published 12 October 2011 11:38

Today's employment figures make grim reading for the government. Total unemployment now stands at 2.57m, the highest level since 1994, while the unemployment rate is now 8.1 per cent, the highest level since 1996. Worse, youth unemployment rose by 74,000 to 991,000 (21.3 per cent), just short of the symbolic million mark and the highest level since comparable records began in 1992. The danger of a lost generation is increasing every month. Since it came to power, the coalition has scrapped the Future Jobs Fund (described by Frank Field, the government's poverty adviser, as "one of the most precious things the last government was involved in"), abolished the Education Maintenance Allowance (EMA) and announced that it will offer 10,000 fewer university places next year. All measures that have exacerbated the jobs crisis.

And worse could be to come. George Osborne promised that private-sector job creation would "far outweigh" the job losses in the public-sector but few now believe him. Earlier this week, the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development [CIPD] warned that 610,000 public-sector jobs would be lost by 2016 (200,000 more than forecast by the Office for Budget Responsibility) and urged the government to call a halt to its job cuts.

The ONS didn't publish new figures on public and private sector employment this month but last month's bulletin showed that while 264,000 private-sector jobs have been created over the last year, 240,000 public-sector jobs have been lost, a net gain of just 24,000 jobs. Worse, over the quarter, 111,000 public-sector jobs were lost, while just 41,000 private-sector jobs were created, suggesting that the labour market is beginning to stagnate.

The CIPD estimates that every public-sector job that is lost costs the state around £8,000-£10,000 in benefits and taxes forgone. Osborne, who has already been forced to announce an extra £44.4bn of borrowing due to lower tax revenues and higher welfare payments, will find it ever harder to reduce the deficit as unemployment continues to rise. As the self-defeating nature of austerity becomes clear, the pressure for a change of course will become even greater.

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Tags: youth unemployment unemployment

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11 comments

Wed, 2011-10-12 11:51 — Dan Ladds

Why are we surprised by rising unemployment? If anything we should be surprised that it isn't worse.

Unemployment and inequality aren't a quirk of the current economic system, they're precisely what it tends towards. As technology improves, less people are needed to produce the same goods; additionally, most of our actual manufacture is now outsourced to workers in countries that allow them to be exploited more cheaply.

It's quite paradoxical from a resource-based perspective. We have the capacity to produce the requirements for life in greater abundance than ever ...and as a result, some people lack those requirements because they themselves are surplus to requirements.

It's only going to get worse unless we make a fundamental change. The endpoint of the current scenario is a world where a small number of owners are provided for by machines and a small number of workers, and a mass of workers are simply "surplus to requirements".

Wed, 2011-10-12 13:14 — Dreamland (not verified)

I'm 25 next year and I haven't much job experience except for working in supermarkets. I graduated university last year with a pretty good degree from a pretty good uni. While at uni I was involved with many different groups and committees and got took part in plenty of extra curricular activities. I thought this would open up doors for me which otherwise wouldn't be there. Everyone in my family were very proud of my achievements as I was the first to get a degree, am intelligent and enjoy a challenge. They assumed I'd find it easy to find something.

I didn't. Stupid of me being naive. I can't even get voluntary work, internships ask for you to have previous internship experience, so won't take me. What have I got to show for the hard work I put in? Nothing. I'm not on benefits, my days are filled with searching for paid and unpaid jobs, applying for them and hardly hearing anything back, even the most basic entry level jobs. I'm depressed and am falling apart. My brothers are both doing so well for themselves, they never went to university, and to be honest it's hard.

I'm not sure how much longer I can carry on like this.

Wed, 2011-10-12 13:54 — Graham (not verified)

The government needs a plan to cut debt and the deficit. Since coming to power, national debt is greater, the deficit bigger, and the modest growth we had at the end with Labour has been replaced with stagnation.

Wed, 2011-10-12 13:40 — Anton Jury (not verified)

I want to hear what Ian Duncan Smith has to say on this matter because he is the one flogging people to find work that does not exist and the situation is getting worse.

How can Ian Duncan Smith still claim that work pays when this situation is getting worse by the day.

This Evil Government is pretending that by reducing benefit payments will magically force people into work that does not exist.

I am convinced that this Government is enjoying the fact that it is inflicting misery far and wide.

Thousands of people and working families included are having to go begging to charities for free food handouts. Vist the Trussells Trust Website.

Poverty is rising under this Tory led Government. This could only happen under the Tories in 2011.

Wed, 2011-10-12 14:04 — David Sims (not verified)

My situation is similar to the poster Dreamland.

27 yo, respectable degree from respectable uni. Only had low-paid temporary jobs since graduating. Currently unemployed after having lost job in late 2008 due to downturn.

Job-seeking everyday is mind-numbing and is sapping the will to live. Never having any money to improve you skills/partake in the basics of a civilized society and get to interviews (thanks to rising costs of public transport) chips away at your confidence. I'm finding that you must have very specific experience (basically having done the exact same job) before you are even short-listed. Then it is not unusual to be up against hundreds of applicants. It is even worse with jobs that don't demand as many qualifications. Half a life in education and for what? LOCKED OUT OF LIFE

The employment situation in this country is shot. What we need are REAL jobs that pay a living wage. No to commission only sales/cold-calling jobs and exploitative internships where you can only progress if you can afford to work for nothing.

I don't feel that any polictical party understands how screwed young people are. Of course many other people are screwed in different ways, but I think it is worse for the youngest.

Wed, 2011-10-12 14:24 — Sir Michael (not verified)

So youth laziness rose by 74,000 over the last few months did it? Isn't it odd how people always seem to get more lazy during Conservative governments? It must have something to do with the fact they are so utterly free with welfare and give the unemployed an easy time of things.

/sarcasm

@Dreamland & David Sims - I'm sorry to hear about your situations my old maties but hang on in there. This lunacy will not continue forever, sooner or later someone has to see some sense and turn it around. Also, if you have any of those dark hours were you get depressed at the situation you are in, just try to remember there are far better ways to determine the value of a person than the work they do or the pay they take home. Work is merely an aid to living, it doesn't define who you are.

Wed, 2011-10-12 14:38 — Brendan Caffrey1

Keeping ones self respect is vital for survival amongst all unemployed, especially recent graduates. How to do this? Work with the skills and knowledge you have acquired over a long educational experience. So, if you graduated in a language, write in that language, teach it. If your subject was in the sciences do some research which has low costs. Keep applying for all government grants.Plan for the long term, more than a few years.Grow your own food.Hold on to all your friends. Continue to educate yourself, and use all the grants for adult education. Do not neglect your cultural life. Join a play reading group, a discussion group, a political party, an art class, etc..

See my blog at:
whyworktoday2967.wordpress.com

Wed, 2011-10-12 15:03 — tuttifrutti (not verified)

Dreamland and David Sims
Please, please do keep at it. It is the human stories like yours' that really give the insight to these figures and the newspaper headlines, which often have their own agenda and doesn't include the truth of the situation.

Thu, 2011-10-13 17:17 — Ian5

This number is greatly underestimated, if one includes those at modern pseudo university's doing little more that rack up thousands of pounds of debt and leaving with a degree worth less than the paper its printed on. Yet we still can't find the people to do the more technical jobs our industries say they need.....close 50% of the current universities and return them to vocational centres of excellence training real apprentices with support from industry. Meeting the needs of industry.

Wed, 2011-10-12 18:50 — andyg (not verified)

Dreamland and David Sims

I know exactly what your saying and feeling. It happened to me under the Tory government of the 80's and I found myself out of work for 12 long months. I still recall the feeling of giving up but stick in there.
Sir Michael and tuttifrutti are both right in what they say. Don't lose your self respect or your dignity. The pair of you would make great future politicians. It's knowing the true face of poverty and exclusion that brings about the best leaders for the future.
Good luck and best wishes to both of you.

Wed, 2011-10-12 12:29 — donnavaca (not verified)

When it comes to unemployment it’s been a tale of two recessions, with level of education playing an unprecedented role in whether you’ve been pink slipped or not. Getting a degree from "High Speed Universities" is the only solution