The Time bomb of Youth unemployment

Manchester and Salford are amongst two of 152 youth unemployment local authority areas identified in a new report which says that the UK faces a crisis of youth unemployment if local agencies do not take urgent action.

The report by the Commission on Youth Unemployment which was set up by Chief Executives of Voluntary Organisations (AVECO), identified 600 local unemployment ‘hotspots’ across 152 local authority areas.

One in five young people are not in employment, education or training (Neet) and the commission says this will cost the country £28bn over the next decade says the report.

It recommends that employment zones be created with all local groups coming together to pool their resources, including local councils and that a new mentoring scheme for young people, where under-25s who have been in work for a year mentor others to help them gain employment, should also be established.

The human misery of youth unemployment is also a time-bomb under the nation’s finances according to the authors.

At its current rates, in 2012 youth unemployment will cost the exchequer £4.8 billion (more than the budget for further education for 16- to- 19-year-olds in England) and cost the economy £10.7 billion in lost output. But the costs they say are not just temporary.

The scarring effects of youth unemployment at its current levels will ratchet up further future costs of £2.9 billion per year for the exchequer (equivalent to the entire annual budget for Jobcentre Plus) and £6.3 billion p.a. for the economy in lost output.