Youth unemployment begins to fall as Covid-19 restrictions lift
Fiona Simpson
Tuesday, August 17, 2021
Unemployment among young people has begun to decrease as Covid-19 restrictions lift across the UK, latest figures show.
The proportion of 16- to 24-year-olds out of work between April and June decreased 0.6 percentage points compared with the previous quarter, analysis of data by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) shows.
-
Blog: Five key approaches to supporting young people into employment
-
Analysis: How Durham aids young jobless
Employment rates for the same age group increased by 1.4 percentage points, the report shows.
It states that: “Young people (those aged 16 to 24 years) have been particularly affected by the pandemic, with the employment rate decreasing and the unemployment and economic inactivity rates increasing by more than seen for those aged 25 years and over.
“Over the last quarter, however, there was a stronger increase in the employment rate and a decrease in the unemployment and inactivity rates for young people.”
A separate report by the ONS shows that job vacancies hit a record high in the three months to July, totalling 953,000.
Meanwhile, a government briefing on the Kickstart scheme, which provides funding to employers who create new jobs for young people, shows that as of 22 July, 50,000 young people had started jobs, and as of 21 July, more than 155,000 job placements had been approved and made available.
The scheme is intended to provide work placements for young people aged 16-24 who are on Universal Credit and who are at risk of long-term unemployment, the government has said.