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date: 14 December 2009

embargo: 00.01hrs Tuesday 15 December 2009

Young people doing better in this recession than in 1980s, says TUC

TUC analysis of official statistics released today (Tuesday) shows that the number of young people without a job and not in full-time education was higher during the 1980s recession than it is today.

The earliest official unemployment figures available are from 1984, three years after that decade's recession ended. They reveal that more than a quarter (26 per cent) of young people aged 16-24 were not in full-time education and either unemployed or economically inactive. Some 2.1 million young people were unable to secure work well after the recession had ended, and were blighted by long periods of joblessness.

But while this recession is as deep as that of the 1980s, figures for July-September 2009 show that there are currently 1.6 million young people who are without a job and not in full-time education, around one in five (21 per cent) of the young workforce.

The current rate of increase in youth unemployment is already beginning to slow, making it likely that the numbers of young people without a job and not in full-time education will peak at a much lower level than in the 1980s - as long as the Government continues both the stimulus and the programmes that directly help the young workless, says the TUC.

TUC analysis says that the Government's investment in quality employment and training opportunities such as the Future Jobs Fund (which provides training opportunities for any young person who has been out of work for at least six months from January 2010) has been vital in stemming a similar tide of youth worklessness witnessed in the UK in the 1980s.

But this doesn't mean that youth unemployment is not a national emergency and it should continue to be a top priority for the Government, says the TUC.

Although welcoming the funding that has seen more than 50,000 job placements created, with a large number of places being offered in areas of the UK currently experiencing high unemployment, the TUC is concerned that the Future Jobs Fund only has 100,000 places for young people. It would like the Government to open up the scheme to ensure all long-term unemployed young people are able to take up a place.

TUC General Secretary Brendan Barber said: 'High youth unemployment and prolonged periods of joblessness left a generation of young people on the scrap heap in the 1980s.

'With one in five of the UK's young population currently out of work, it's clear that young people in their teens and twenties are among those bearing the brunt of the recession again. However Government investment is helping ensure that the outlook for young people is not as bleak as it was in the 1980s. This is one 80s revival we do not need.

'But even though the figures are not as bad as they were a generation ago, for every young person struggling to get work, this recession is a personal tragedy.

'The Future Jobs Fund is providing new jobs at decent wages for young people, but it needs to be extended so all long-term unemployed young people can benefit.'

NOTES TO EDITORS:

- Unemployment figures are from the Labour Force Survey and are not seasonally adjusted. This is because the 1980s data is not available on a non-seasonally adjusted basis.

- All unemployment figures are total numbers of 16 to 24-year-olds who were unemployed, inactive and not in full-time education.

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Contacts:

Media enquiries:
Liz Chinchen T: 020 7467 1248 M: 07778 158175 E: media@tuc.org.uk
Rob Holdsworth T: 020 7467 1372 M: 07717 531150 E: rholdsworth@tuc.org.uk
Elly Brenchley T: 020 7467 1337 M: 07900 910624 E: ebrenchley@tuc.org.uk

Press release (800 words) issued 15 Dec 2009