Our Director of Impact and Evidence, Chris Goulden, responds to today’s labour market statistics.
“Today’s ONS job stats show that the economy is indicating strong signs of recovery with a record number of vacancies for the second month in a row. However, this masks complex issues for young people that remain unaddressed.
“There are 631,000 young people not in education or employment and nearly 200,000 of those are long-term unemployed.
“It is unacceptable that just over one in 10 of our young people are not in education, employment or training (NEET) – this figure is still too high compared with places like Germany, Denmark and the Netherlands. If we could match the NEET rates seen in Germany, that could provide a £40bn boost to our national GDP.
“These figures lay bare a fragmented youth employment system. It needs to be reconnected to make sure those who need it most can benefit from the opportunities arising from the bounce back.
“That’s why we’ve committed £18.7m, with more to be announced later this year, to help young people from marginalised backgrounds get good jobs.
“We welcome the recent extension of Kickstart, however we still call on government to deliver on its promise of levelling up with a meaningful Opportunity Guarantee, so that no young person is left out.”
