Young people set to bear the brunt of the recession

For many businesses already reeling from the credit crunch and struggling to survive in the current economic climate, 2009 has also brought official bad news with the realisation that we are officially in a recession. From a Connexions perspective, this has a negative impact for our county’s young people as the threat of redundancy looms and opportunities are not so readily available.

Recent reports suggest that young people are more likely to lose their jobs than adults as they perhaps have fewer skills and will certainly have less experience. Often businesses have a last in, first out policy and, in addition, young people are also more likely to be in part-time and temporary jobs and these often go first.

It’s predicted that youth unemployment may rise to levels last reached in the 1990s. At a time when the number of young people is decreasing the economy could lose out on their potential skills if these young people become long term unemployed.

We know that the current economic situation makes it difficult for employers who would like to recruit and train young people. We realise that your focus will be on surviving the recession but there may still be ways in which you could help secure a skilled workforce for the future.

You may not be able to offer paid work opportunities but maybe you have scope for offering unpaid work placements – these could be for young people on Programme Led Apprenticeships or on Entry to Employment (e2e), studying Diplomas in schools or on full-time courses in college. If you want to know more without committing yourself, you can email us with your queries.
If you have to make a young person redundant, if they haven’t reached their 20th birthday they can still get advice and guidance from Connexions, so please remind them to get in touch with us if they need to.

Tell us what you think. What can young people do to get through this difficult time and make sure they’re ready for work when things start improving?

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