The latest ONS statistics have just been released, revealing an alarming rise in NEET young people:

• A 13% year-on-year rise in young people who are not earning or learning risks long-term scarring
  effects – figures have risen to 788,000. NEET figures haven’t been this high since December 2020.
• 62% NEET are inactive (not in work and not looking/unable to work) and 39% are unemployed.
• Rising mental ill health is harming their labour market prospects and access to good quality work;
  two out of three young people who are economically inactive also have a common mental health
  disorder.
• The cost-of-living crisis is also hitting those who faced existing challenges. Action is needed now to
  prevent the long-term scarring effects of being locked out of the labour market.
• The report suggests we need join up a fragmented employment support system.

Read more here.

The move, which would apply to all workers and employees including agency workers, comes after a review found many workers on zero hours contracts experience ‘one-sided flexibility’.

This means people across the country are currently left waiting, unable to get on with their lives in case of being called up at the last minute for a shift. With a more predictable working pattern, workers will have a guarantee of when they are required to work, with hours that work for them.

If a worker’s existing working pattern lacks certainty in terms of the hours they work, the times they work or if it is a fixed term contract for less than 12 months, they will be able to make a formal application to change their working pattern to make it more predictable.

To read the policy, click here.

Construction firms have pitched up in prisons across England and Wales for the latest major drive to match offenders with jobs in sectors facing skill shortages and cut crime.

More than 80 ‘Unlocking Construction’ events have been held in over 60 prisons as part of a two-week campaign – with scaffolders, crane operatives and building site managers among those showing offenders the ropes in their industry.

Firms have laid the crucial groundwork for prisoner job hunts, with guidance on Curriculum Vitae building, interview training and hands-on workshops giving them the chance to secure work ahead of release. 

Read the press release here.

Young people will soon be able to search and apply for apprenticeships on UCAS. Thousands of apprenticeship opportunities to be advertised to young people alongside undergraduate degrees in plans to broaden UCAS.

Half of UCAS applicants would consider an apprenticeship, but not enough vacancies are being offered to meet growing demand. Young people will be able to use UCAS to search and apply for apprenticeships, alongside degrees, under new plans announced by the Education Secretary and UCAS.

Education Secretary sets out ambition to go further still, to develop a one-stop-shop to make it easier for young people to see all education and training options and apply for them. From this autumn, UCAS will expand their service so that young people can see more personalised options, including apprenticeships. From 2024, students will then be able to apply for apprenticeships through UCAS alongside an undergraduate degree application.

Almost half of people that register on UCAS say they would consider an apprenticeship, but currently there are not enough vacancies being advertised through the service to meet growing demand. The plans will help put technical and vocational education on an equal footing with traditional academic routes. By opening the service to apprenticeship opportunities, thousands more young people will benefit from a wider choice of high-quality options. Employers will also benefit from better access to talent on UCAS and the ability to manage their apprentice recruitment process.

Read the press release here.

The House of Commons released a full briefing paper on this month’s unemployment figures. Below is a summary of some key findings taken from the paper:

471,000 young people aged 16-24 were unemployed in October-December 2022, up 72,000 from the previous quarter and up 10,000 from a year before.

Youth unemployment is currently at a historically low level. The lowest level of youth unemployment since records began in 1992 was in June-August 2022, when there were 372,000 unemployed young people.

The unemployment rate (the proportion of the economically active population who are unemployed) for 16–24 year olds was 11.3%. This is up from 9.8% in the previous quarter and up from 11.1% the year before.

The number who are economically inactive (not in or looking for work) fell by 80,000 from the previous quarter but increased by 11,000 from the previous year to 2.67 million. 74% of the young people who are economically inactive are in full-time education. The inactivity rate for young people is 39.0%, down from 40.2% in the previous quarter.

 

Trends in youth unemployment

After reaching a peak of 22.5% in 2011 following the 2008 financial crisis, youth unemployment rates fell until the start of the pandemic to 12.3% in January-March 2020. Youth unemployment did initially rise after the outbreak of the pandemic, with the youth unemployment rate reaching a high of 14.9% in July-September 2020. Levels of youth unemployment were 15% higher in this quarter than they were pre-pandemic.

Since then, youth unemployment has been steadily falling. There were 60,000 fewer unemployed young people in October-December 2022 compared to January-March 2020, an 11% fall. The youth unemployment rate has fallen from 12.3% to 11.3% during this period.

It is still three times harder for a young person to find employment.

More people are entering or returning to work as the cost of living continues to bite into household finances.

The report believes that the fall in economic inactivity during the last 3 month period was helped by more of those aged 16-24 as well as 50-64 year olds.

The news article focuses on the UK’s economic inactivity. 

The Department of Education is launching a one-year employer support fund. This fund will provide financial assistance to employers offering high-quality T Level industry placements in the financial year 2023 to 2024.

From April 2023, employers can claim funding to cover legitimate costs associated with hosting a T Level industry placement student. This could include: 

• set-up costs
• equipment
• staff training

Eligibility for any employer who offers a suitable placement for a T Level student is eligible to claim for legitimate costs. For more, please click here.

The wellbeing of young people stagnates at an all-time low post pandemic, warns Princes Trust (NatWest) annual report.

Aspiring to stability – research shows that for many young people, financial security and good mental health are among their biggest goals in life and having a job can help them to create the stability they need to realise their aspirations.

The perfect storm – research suggests that the public health and economic challenges of recent times are damaging young people’s aspirations and confidence in the future. The trials of the pandemic and now the cost-of-living crisis have made it incredibly difficult for them to find a way forward, particularly for those who were already facing disadvantage and adversity.

Compromised by cost of living -the rising cost of living is of huge concern to young people right now, with many experiencing anxieties and worrying that they will never achieve their life ambitions because of the economic turmoil.

The pressures on young women – young women’s responses suggest they are more likely than young men to be feeling anxious about how a looming recession and the rising cost of living might impact their lives, both now and in the future.

If you have the time read the report in full – it will be well worth your time!

Evidence from previous recessions tells us that young people who enter the labour market during downturns tend to experience worse career outcomes that take several years to recover from.

In 2020–21, the total number of hours worked by those aged 16–24 dropped by a fifth year- on-year.

The loss in working experience and the reduced ability to move up the career ladder during the pandemic, coupled with shocks to mental health, could be expected to leave long-lasting scars on recent graduates.

The cohort that graduated in 2020, particularly individuals with university degrees, initially saw worse outcomes on some measures. They struggled to find work three to six months after graduation, were less likely to receive on-the-job training in their first year, and those with degrees started in lower-paid occupations than previous cohorts.

However, the employment rates of the 2020 cohort had fully recovered nine to twelve months after graduation, and one to two years after graduation there were no obvious differences from the previous cohort across several job quality measures.

It appears that the rapid economic recovery and the boom in new job vacancies since 2021 allowed new entrants to quickly recover lost ground. Apart from the 2020 cohort, other cohorts who entered the labour market during or just before the pandemic did not see slower occupational progression or have worse job quality, with one exception: those from disadvantaged backgrounds were more likely to be in the same job that they held at school or university.

However, there is, yet no indication that this has affected other measures of their job quality. It may be that some negative effects of the COVID-19 pandemic are yet to materialise. Gaps between the COVID-19 cohorts and earlier cohorts may emerge as the labour market becomes less tight, as the loss of experience and training they experienced puts them at a disadvantage. Working from home may have affected the quality of on-the-job training and learning, effects that are unlikely to be captured by short-term measures of job quality.

Perhaps more concerning are the prospects for the next two cohorts of graduates. They will have suffered an incredibly unfortunate double whammy, with disruption during a key phrase of their education due to the pandemic, followed by an economy in recession upon entry into the jobs market. Despite these challenges, strained public finances mean that government support is likely to be sparse

We know that the UK drastically needs to reduce carbon emissions and address biodiversity loss. Meanwhile, the public, staring down the barrel of soaring costs and economic headwinds are looking for tangible improvements to their everyday lives and local environments.

Therefore a £300 billion 10-year package of investment, rooted in fairness to transform the environment, the economy, and wellbeing was announced.

In the recent autumn statement, the chancellor set out the government’s plans to respond to the turmoil from October’s mini-budget. He outlined significant tax rises, new fiscal rules limiting borrowing, and significant cuts to public services from 2025.

Within this changed political and economic context, the politics of the 2010s with a narrow focus on debt is threatening a return. The public increasingly agree we must implement policies to address climate change, with 80% seeing this as the solution to the energy crisis. IPPR has a series of recommendations for how to tackle the issues of investment in the green economy.

Local authorities should be giving much greater capital funding for green investment. A place-specific net zero investment scenario comes at one-quarter of the cost and delivers twice the wider societal benefits. Government must identify and then devolve funding for where combined and local authorities are best placed to lead. Green investment will require a long-term approach, with significant reform to our institutions, independent oversight, and devolution of funding to local authorities.

Read the full report here.