Press Story

There are still 968,000 young people (aged 16-24) who are not in education, employment or training (NEET) according to official statistics published today. The slight fall is described by the Department for Education's statisticians as "not statistically significant", meaning the number remains close to the highest since 2000.

A new report from the think tank IPPR, also published today, shows that employers have become increasingly reluctant to hire teenagers, particularly in London. It shows that young people are three times as likely as older workers to have been made redundant last year.

The report shows that only six per cent of UK employers (three per cent in London) recruit straight from school and that, as a result, school leavers compete with more experienced workers for the same jobs. This reluctance has increased over time, despite the fact that young people are better qualified than ever before.

The new IPPR report shows that many young people in the capital, where long-term employment prospects for young people fell last year, have reacted to the failed economic recovery by staying in or returning to education. It says young people are far more likely to be in temporary jobs than older workers, and have been persistently less likely to remain in employment from one quarter to the next since the start of the recession.

While unemployment among university graduates is high, the report highlights how school leavers are most at risk of being out of work. But lack of qualifications is not the whole story, as one in three unemployed young Londoners had qualifications at Level 3 (A-level) or above.

IPPR argues that young people's employment prospects can be improved by creating strong training pathways into work, such as apprenticeships. Some employers' unwillingness to invest in training, IPPR argues, has driven their reluctance to employ young people. The report calls for measures to raise the quality of existing opportunities and encourage more employers to hire and train young people.

Tess Lanning, IPPR Research Fellow, said:

"Today's statistics show that no real progress is being made in reducing the number of young people who are not in education, employment or training. The question we need to answer is why young people today find it so much harder to find stable and well-paid work than their counterparts in the 1970s, despite the fact that they are far better educated.

"IPPR's research shows that this is rooted in the lack of high quality training and work opportunities, particularly for non-graduates. Young people are far more likely to work in casual, low paid jobs, and many of the vocational training options available offer low level training for a specific job and do not provide transferable skills for other jobs or a platform for further study.

"A lack of coordination between schools and colleges exacerbates the difficulty for young people when making important study choices at ages 14 and 16, and a lack of impartial and high quality information, advice and guidance mean that non-academic young people have little support to navigate this complex environment.

"Reducing high youth unemployment depends on returning the economy as a whole to growth and employment. Providing a job guarantee to all long term unemployed young people, backed by an obligation to take up the work, could help to mitigate the 'scarring' effect for the rising numbers of young people out of work for long periods of time or cycling between numerous low paid jobs."

IPPR's report makes four recommendations to improve youth transitions between school and employment:

Devolve commissioning responsibility to ensure a more strategic approach to post-16 education
Improve the information available to inform young people's choices
Raise the quality of vocational education
Offer a 'something for something' deal to encourage employers to recruit and train young people

IPPR's report finds that young women in London are significantly more likely than their male contemporaries to be not working or in full time education, despite being more likely to stay in education at the age of 16. It suggests that this is linked to choosing to remain at home in a caring role rather than progress further with education or training.

Notes to Editors

IPPR's new report - From Learning to Earning: understanding the school-to-work transition - is available to download from http://ippr.org/publication/55/9516/from-learning-to-earning-understanding-the-school-to-work-transition-in-london

Today's NEET figures are available from: http://www.education.gov.uk/researchandstatistics/statistics/a00212483/neet-statistics-quarter-2-2012

Over a million 16 to 24 year olds are now unemployed, with a quarter of a million out of work for more than a year and record numbers of young people not in employment, education or training.

Youth unemployment rose during the boom years from 2004 that preceded the recession and has not fallen below half a million since the 1980s.

Unemployment among young people currently stands at 1,012,000 - close to its highest level since comparable records began in 1992. Studies show that long periods of unemployment (or moving frequently from one temporary post to another) while people are young has a 'scarring effect' that lasts throughout their working lives.

The latest unemployment figures are available from: http://www.ons.gov.uk/ons/rel/lms/labour-market-statistics/august-2012/index.html

Contact

Richard Darlington, 07525 481 602, r.darlington@ippr.org