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Youth Unemployment
Lizzie Crowley
Improving national picture but long-term
trend in youth disengagement…
Changing structure of the labour market
Growing labour market polarisation
Source: UKCES
Projected to intensify…
Source: UKCES
Impact of change in the labour market on
the education to work transition
• Less demand for physical skills and more demand for soft
skills
- Customer facing skills increasingly in demand
- Difficult to obtain/demonstrate soft skills without
experience
• Qualifications
- Even more important
- Significant wage premium for graduates
- Large employment penalty for those with no
qualifications
• Concerns about limited progression
- Lack of effective career ladders
Youth unemployment is highly spatially
concentrated
• Youth unemployment
is not evenly spread
• High proportion in
some inner city
London Boroughs and
some northern towns
and cities which have
suffered from
deindustrialisation
Source: APS combined waves 20012/13
Work Foundation calculations
Drivers of local disparities
 Reflect the changing geography of the UK’s economy and
limited adjustment of low skilled labour market
 Low skilled young people particularly disadvantaged in
weak labour markets
But cities will also experience other distinctive local challenges
which may make YU levels higher or lower, including:
 Weak public transport infrastructure
 Poor provision of services to support youth employment
 Intense competition for vocational training options
Tackling youth unemployment is made harder
by a challenging policy and funding context
Source: CESI 2012
The distinctive nature of youth unemployment in
London
Youth unemployment in London
• Above average rates of youth unemployment (21 per cent)
despite strong economic growth
• Geographically concentrated in parts of the city reflecting
broader patterns of deprivation and poverty
• Potential drivers?:
1. Composition of the youth labour
2. Nature of employment opportunities and competition for
jobs
Youth unemployment rates higher across most
qualification levels…
Youth unemployment rates – 2001
Youth unemployment rates - 2011
The composition of the youth labour market
The types of employment opportunities…
Competition for jobs
• As a global city the capital is very attractive to overseas
migrants, many of whom are highly skilled
 Number of residents born abroad = 44 per cent
• …and to migrants from other parts of the UK
 In 2012 more than 200,000 people moved to London
• But… growth in jobs not kept pace with increases in working
age population
• High levels of in-commuting from the greater South East
Lack of strong vocational pathway for young people
Smoothing the school to work transition, policy
priorities should include:
• Clarifying non-academic pathways
• Strengthening further education and apprenticeship provision
• Greater emphasis in schools on destinations
• Improving the careers guidance offer
• Simplifying support and funding
• Greater local co-ordination of youth services
• Access to work experience opportunities
• Increase employer engagement across the school to work
transitions
Implications for role of employers
Education:
• Informing careers information advice and guidance
• Curriculum development and advice
• Mentoring, work experience, work place visits and school
talks
Access to employment:
• Youth friendly recruitment policy
• Work experience opportunities
In work progression and development:
• Apprenticeships and training opportunities
Lizzie Crowley – Head of Youth Employment
[email protected]