Few prospects for young unemployed
Wednesday 13th April 2011, 11:30AM BST.
YOUTH UNEMPLOYMENT smashed through the one million mark today, despite an overall reduction in the number of people out of work across Britain.
Latest figures from the Office For National Statistics served up mixed messages for the Government over the health of the UK economy. The jobless total fell by 17,000 in the three months to the end of February to 2.48 million.
But the number of people aged 18-24 out of work rose by 12,000 to 963,000, and the total for 16 and 17-year-olds in-creased by 14,000 to 218,000.
In Shropshire, however, there are now 814 fewer people out of work than the same time last year, and 148 fewer than last month. Telford & Wrekin’s jobless total in March stood at 4,285, with a further 4,863 in the Shropshire Council zone.
And the number of people in work across the country also increased, showing a 143,000 rise to 29.23 million, although the figure is still 331,000 below the pre-recession peak reached in May 2008.
Speaking on the Daybreak TV show this morning, PM David Cameron said: “For youth unemployment, which has actually been going up for years in our country, the real change we need is actually in our education system to make sure we are producing young people at the age of 18 with a real qualification that people need in the modern workplace.” He also called for the voluntary sector to help advise young people on getting jobs.
But Paul Kenny from the GMB union said: “The Government is ignoring the costs of the social breakdown that is a consequence of mass youth unemployment.”
Today’s figures also highlighted the split in fortunes between the public and private sector. Public sector employment fell by 45,000 to 6.2 million over the final quarter of 2010, while workers in private firms in-creased by 77,000 to just under 23 million.
Average earnings in-creased by two per cent in the year to February, down by 0.3 per cent on the previous month. The average pay packet across the UK is now £448 a week.
There were 482,000 vacancies across the UK in the three months to March, up by 16,000 over the year, with the rise due to temporary jobs for this year’s Census.
By Carl Jones
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Just because people are unemployed doesn’t mean there are no jobs, in fact there’s quite a lot of jobs that young people could get but probably see themselves as above them, maybe they should withdraw benefits and throw these people into jobs like cleaning etc instead having the job centre pay for them to be lazy?
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Try looking for a job when you have no experience, especially when up against someone older, more experienced and with a driving license. Where are all these cleaning jobs, can’t find them in the paper or the job centre.
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funny that, because they’re all over the job centre website in various places in shropshire…
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I recall a conversation I had one afternoon, about 18months ago, with a Polish girl. She was probably in her mid-twenties then and had just started to our section after about one year of employment with the company. I informed that I had a son who was(at that time)19 years old.
She, the Polish girl returned innocently and in a very matter-of-fact manner “Does your son work or just lay all day in bed like so many English teenagers seem too?”.
I was not so much surprised by her question but that she thought to ask it and that it seemed she would not have been at all surprised had my answer have been along the lines of “Yes, & he’s probably in bed as we speak”.
As it happens my son was & still is (thankfully) in full-time employment.
However it made me wonder of the considerations of others towards our younger generation!
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“Get a proper job, get a proper job”
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I was speaking to a Care Assistant from Poland who could not understand why we do not look after our own elderly relatives at home as they do in their country.
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“In Shropshire, however, there are now 814 fewer people out of work than the same time last year, and 148 fewer than last month. Telford & Wrekin’s jobless total in March stood at 4,285, with a further 4,863 in the Shropshire Council zone.”
No wonder so many people ‘don’t understand maths’. This is a hopeless way to present statistics, mixing up totals in T&W with reductions in Shropshire.
Comparisons might be interesting but this jumble of figures make them impossible.
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Of course there is work out there, otherwise we wouldn’t be employing Polish and other foreign nationals.
Unfortuntately there are employment agencies everywhere who offer people a day or two’s work with no holidays, long term employment or a future. etc etc.
If people were offered real jobs with a future it would give young people an incentive to work. As it stands they have no interest in going to work because the next day they could be back out of work and there you get the “why should I bother ” attitude.
The government needs to encourage manufacturing industry back into the country with apprenticeships and a real career future.
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It’s back to the 80′s with the Con-Dems,there will be a wasted generation of teenagers with no hope.
Still Cameron’s ok his kids names are down for Eton already!
Remember when Margaret Thatcher said “We don’t need manufacturing industry”
We now see just how wrong she was,people must have been out of their minds to support her in the 80′s.
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As a parent who has been helping my teenager to find work I can tell you it is not easy and there aren’t many jobs out there. He checks the paper, has asked in shops and the youth employment centre. He’s found very little, applied for everything he has found, had one interview and received just two letters back saying thanks but no thanks. He found a job in the end, but it wasn’t easy and took ages. Stop putting our teenagers down.
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I’ve seen young people turn up for job interviews in jeans, t-shirts, three days’ male stubble and trainers. I’ve seen emails to our clients from young staff who can’t spell or use correct English and think that textese (“do u no wen ur m8s will deliver…”) is OK in official communication.
So teenagers, some tips if you’re attending that job interview. Males should be freshly shaved, have clean hair and fingernails, wear a collar and tie and if you don’t have a suit, put on ironed trousers as well as having clean shoes. Females should not stink of cigarettes (all too common I’m afraid) and be smartly dressed in clean, pressed clothes.
Everyone should have researched the company to which they are applying and be able to rattle off some facts about their prospective employer, as well as having well rehearsed answers to questions like “What personal strengths will you bring to this position?”
Most of those who don’t get past the initial stage fail because their CVs are riddled with spelling mistakes and irrelevant information. Those who fail at the interview stage frequently do so because they don’t show that they care enough about wanting the job to present themselves well.
Given two candidates of equal educational standard, one in jeans and trainers and who’s not bothered to shave for several days, and an alternative smartly dressed well turned out candidate – guess who’s going to be offered the job?
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