£16m per week to meet cost of young jobless

YOUTH unemployment in Yorkshire could cost the region's economy up to £16m a week, after research revealed the number of young jobseekers has rocketed to an 11-year high.

The number of 16 to 24-year-olds who are claiming Jobseeker's Allowance (JSA) for 12 months or longer has more than doubled since before the recession, according to a report from the Prince's Trust and Royal Bank of Scotland.

The study, based on research by the London School of Economics, shows that the UK has a much higher youth unemployment rate than many of its European neighbours, such as Germany, Denmark, Austria, Norway and Holland.

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Samantha Kennedy, regional director of The Prince's Trust in Yorkshire, said: "The annual cost for an individual jobseeker in Yorkshire can be as much as 16,000. The argument for intervention and support is unquestionable.

"For a fraction of this cost, The Prince's Trust can support a jobless young person through an intensive personal development course, helping them leave the dole queue."

The figures are based on lost productivity being equivalent to the average weekly wage for the age group, and reveals the cost is almost 16m a week. If the figures are based on lost productivity being equivalent to JSA, the cost is still almost 5m per week.

Fionnuala Earley, RBS Economist said: "As the UK struggles to clear record levels of national debt, we cannot afford to ignore the growing costs of youth disadvantage. This is not just a welfare burden – lost productivity and wasted potential directly affect the rate of economic growth in the UK."

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According to the research, young people with few qualifications have been hit particularly hard by the recent recession. More than a quarter of young men with few qualifications are now unemployed – a much higher proportion than in previous recessions. In Yorkshire, 10 per cent of all 16-to-24-year-olds leave school without qualifications.

Anj Handa, head of employment and skills at Leeds, York and North Yorkshire Chamber of Commerce, said: "The current economic climate means it is even harder for young people than before to find job opportunities.

"A key part of the problem is that many businesses do not feel that schools are equipping young people with the right attributes for the workplace.

"Incentives need to be provided to make it as easy as possible for employers to create apprenticeship places, the bureaucracy needs to be reduced to make it easier for business to take on a young person and funding needs to be more flexible."

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Rosie Winterton, MP for Doncaster Central and former Minister for Yorkshire, said: "This report demonstrates why, during difficult times, Government must take action to help people back into work. The Government scrapped all of Labour's programmes to get young people into work – including the Future Jobs Fund – and are cutting public sector jobs without a plan for growth in the private sector. "