It’s been kept no secret that youth unemployment has reached an all time high across the UK. The number of young people aged between 18-24 who are unemployed, has grown by 4 times the amount over the past 10 years. There are currently an estimated 115,000 young people in the UK who have been out of work for more than 2 years.
The impact that unemployment has on the general welfare of young people is tremendous. They are having to rely on support from parents and living on job seekers benefit. They become socially isolated because they have no money and feel no motivation to get up and go out there, being constantly knocked back down by the job seeking process.
Recent reports have revealed that a large proportion of long term unemployed youth have had suicidal thoughts. These young people should be in the prime of their life, enjoying their youth and the freedom to live. Instead many believe they have nothing to live for.
There are charities working to tackle the problem across the country, offering work placements and internships as a way helping young people to gain valuable work experience. The Prince’s Trust run a scheme called ‘Make Your Mark’, which offers vocational training allowing young job seekers to work with major UK businesses to gain vital job experience, and potentially get themselves a job off the back of the scheme.
UK youth unemployment is in crisis. The more young people are out of work, the more difficult it is to help them back into a job. If they are constantly being told they don’t have enough work experience for even the most basic jobs such as cleaning, this is going to have a significant impact on the general mental state and self-confidence.
Young people need a fair shot at getting a job, and they need more support to help them enter the workplace. More work experience opportunities and internships need to be available, as well as apprenticeships with local companies. There may well be fewer young people on job seeker's benefit than in 2010, but more needs to be done to help young people find a job.
