The savage toll of the recession on the lives of 16 to 24-year-olds is set to come under the spotlight this week amid fears that youth unemployment could top one million.
Joblessness among that age group is already at a record high and economists warned on Sunday that school leavers and graduates who failed to find work in the summer could push the figure up further.
Youth unemployment reached 947,000 in the three months to July – the highest level since Office for National Statistics records began in 1992.
One in five 16 to 24-year-olds was shown to be looking for work, as the jobless rate hit 19.7 per cent.
Professor David Blanchflower, a former member of the Bank of England’s monetary policy committee, warned: “I think unemployment for the under-25s is certain to go through one million, if not this month then next.”
The trade union-backed Youth Fight for Jobs group is organising a national demonstration in London on
November 28 to press its demand for “a real programme of job creation.”
Chancellor Alistair Darling announced plans to avoid a generation of young people being “abandoned to a future on the scrapheap” in this year’s Budget through a guarantee of a job, training or work placement for all 18 to 24-year-olds who have been on the dole for 12 months.
Taken from Morning Star
