Youth Unemployment is about more than NEETS and a lack of jobs, it affects us all

Today’s unemployment figures were predictably bad, nearly 1 million (20.3%) of young people are without work and there is now an ever growing number of underemployed in the UK, people so desperate they are taking part time just to keep themselves active in the Labour market. Both are a policy headache for any Government.

Politicians, City Analysts, Economists, Academics and Commentators will debate the strategic impact of today figures and make predictions with most of them having no idea what being unemployed really means.

For any age unemployment is hard, its physically and mentally debilitating even for the most enthusiastic and active of jobseekers. For young people research has shown that a period of unemployment when you first enter the labour market impacts negatively on the rest of their working lives, all of which has a financial and social cost to wider society that is ignored in most commentary today and every other day unemployment figures are published.

And youth unemployment is not just about those not in Education, Employment or Training (NEETS) who need intensive support in rebuilding their lives and are not currently receiving it. Many of those who in today’s unemployment figures are graduates, the sort of youngsters the country needs to help create wealth in the future to pay for pensions, the NHS, Education, Roads and every other public service we rely on.

Having a job is about more than earning money it’s about feeling part of the wider society and wanting to contributing to it, but as a society we seem happy to throw youngsters on the scrap heap rather than trying to doing something to change the inevitable decline that will see more than one generation lost to work and society if we carry on

I spoke to a wise women today who told me that concerns over number of young unemployed in Wales were being raised over a decade ago and little has been done since, so you have to ask what will shake politicians of any party in to action here in Wales and the rest of the UK on such a vital issue that really does affect us all.Any source