Tackling youth unemployment should be a priority for all sectors, says Acevo CEO Stephen Bubb, as a new report by the Commission on Youth Unemployment warns that the issue has reached “emergency point”.

With one in five young people not in employment, education or training (Neets) and a quarter of a million unemployed for over a year, the Commission says youth unemployment is not only one of the greatest challenges facing the country in human terms, but is also “a £28bn timebomb” under the nation’s finances.

Youth unemployment – the crisis we cannot afford, published today, identifies ‘hotspots’ across Britain where youth unemployment has reached crisis levels – 600 locations covering 152 local authority areas where the proportion of young people claiming Jobseekers Allowance is double the national average.
 
The Commission, chaired by David Miliband MP on behalf of Acevo, makes recommendations on what can be done to make the government’s ambition of abolishing long-term youth unemployment achievable.

Research in the report shows that current levels of youth unemployment will cost the public at least £4.8bn in 2012 and its scarring effects will tally £2.9bn a year. According to the report, the net present value of the wider costs to the Treasury, even looking only a decade ahead, is £28bn.

Taking practical steps

The report tackles the two challenges behind the headlines: the current crisis of rocketing youth unemployment driven by low levels of demand for young people’s labour, and Britain’s long-standing structural youth unemployment problem. The report calls for emergency action and a rethink in how we put existing resources to work more effectively.

Recommendations include:

• Ensuring more job opportunities are available to young people in 2012 by frontloading the government’s ‘youth contract’ initiative and doubling the number of job subsidies available in 2012.
• 'First step’ – a part-time job guarantee for young people who have been on the work programme for a year without finding a job.
• Targeting young people earlier: A new national programme, ‘Job ready’, to work with teenagers to prevent them becoming Neet in the first place, including providing localised education-to-career support for the non-university bound.
• Youth employment zones: starting in the youth unemployment hotspots, local organisations should come together and pool resources to get young people into work, with Whitehall offering an additional boost in the form of extra freedom and flexibility in return for results.
• A new mentoring scheme for young people, by young people, wherein under-25s who have been in work for a year mentor their peers on the path to employment.

 
Speaking on the report, Sir Stephen said: “Youth unemployment has been a burning issue for voluntary sector leaders for years now. The current numbers only serve to reinforce that concern. Charity CEOs are ready and willing to be a key part of the solution, but we need government and the private sector to work with us. The current crisis will only be solved if we see this as a priority for us all.”

David Milband MP added: “Britain faces a youth unemployment emergency. This is a crisis we cannot afford. Government has set the right goal - abolishing long-term youth unemployment - but we will need big change if we are to achieve it.”