Young people are struggling to find work because they didn’t get adequate careers advice in school, according to a leading skills development provider.
City & Guilds is urging the Government take action in response to figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) showing that unemployment has risen for the third month in a row – the first time this has happened since 2011.
Chris Jones, Chief Executive of the City & Guilds Group, is a global leader in skills development said: ‘We can’t lose sight of the fact that 15.6 per cent of young people are still unemployed, even though overall unemployment is starting to steady. It’s crucial that the Government tackles the root of this joblessness.
“Too many of them are struggling to find work because they didn’t get adequate careers advice in school. That’s why we need to use labour market information and the latest data on skills gaps to shape the careers advice on offer. We also need to see even closer links between careers advice services in schools and Local Enterprise Partnerships (LEPs) who can advise on the labour market.
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Joblessness grew by 10,000 between May and July, to 1.82m. The unemployment rate was 5.5pc. However, the number of people in work also rose, from 42,000, to 31.09m, in the period. The employment rate –– or proportion of people aged 16 to 64 in work – was 73.5pc.
Meanwhile the number of people claiming unemployment-related benefit rose by 1,200 to 791,700 last month, though a fall in the claimant count last year was revised to show it was bigger than first thought.
“After all, young people deserve to know about all of their options, including professional and technical education. Analysis we commissioned from the economics firm Cebr shows that a 10 per cent increase in vocational education enrolment for 16 – 18 year olds would cut youth unemployment by 1.5 percentage points – that’s more than 10,500 people,” added Jones.
The surge in pay growth could add to expectations about the time for an interest rate hike nearing, despite inflation currently being zero. It may encourage those Bank of England officials who argue that underlying inflationary pressures are building. Total pay rose 2.9pc year-on-year in the three months to July, according to the ONS.
While regular pay, excluding bonuses, was also up 2.9pc. This was the strongest since February 2009. Real terms regular pay was also up by 2.9pc, the strongest rate since the three months to August 2002, when it climbed by 3pc.
ONS statistician Nick Palmer said: “Although there has been a small rise in the unemployment level, employment is also up on the previous three months, with its headline rate returning to a record high. Meanwhile regular pay – not including bonuses – is growing at its fastest rate for over six years.”
The number of unemployed in the three months to July was 198,000 lower than a year before while the number in work was 413,000 greater compared with 2014. Figures showed 5.36m were employed in the public sector in June this year, 59,000 fewer than a year before. Private sector employment stood at 25.74m in June, 472,000 higher than in the same month in 2014.
Chancellor George Osborne wrote on Twitter: “With wages up 2.9pc over the year and inflation low, working people have received the fastest real terms rise in over a decade. At 73.5pc, employment rate at record high. But we still face risks from global economy and those at home who’d undermine our economic security.”
