Personnel Today
  • Home
    • All PT content
    • Advertise
  • Email sign-up
  • Topics
    • HR Practice
    • Employee relations
    • Equality, diversity and inclusion
    • Learning & training
    • Pay & benefits
    • Wellbeing
    • Recruitment & retention
    • HR strategy
    • HR Tech
    • The HR profession
    • Global
    • All HR topics
  • Legal
    • Case law
    • Commentary
    • Flexible working
    • Legal timetable
    • Shared parental leave
    • Redundancy
    • Maternity & Paternity
    • TUPE
    • Disciplinary and grievances
    • Employer’s guides
  • AWARDS
    • Personnel Today Awards
    • The RAD Awards
    • OHW Awards
  • Jobs
    • Find a job
    • Jobs by email
    • Careers advice
    • Post a job
  • XpertHR
    • Learn more
    • Products
    • Pricing
    • Free trial
    • Subscribe
    • XpertHR USA
  • Webinars
  • OHW+

Personnel Today

Register
Log in
Personnel Today
  • Home
    • All PT content
    • Advertise
  • Email sign-up
  • Topics
    • HR Practice
    • Employee relations
    • Equality, diversity and inclusion
    • Learning & training
    • Pay & benefits
    • Wellbeing
    • Recruitment & retention
    • HR strategy
    • HR Tech
    • The HR profession
    • Global
    • All HR topics
  • Legal
    • Case law
    • Commentary
    • Flexible working
    • Legal timetable
    • Shared parental leave
    • Redundancy
    • Maternity & Paternity
    • TUPE
    • Disciplinary and grievances
    • Employer’s guides
  • AWARDS
    • Personnel Today Awards
    • The RAD Awards
    • OHW Awards
  • Jobs
    • Find a job
    • Jobs by email
    • Careers advice
    • Post a job
  • XpertHR
    • Learn more
    • Products
    • Pricing
    • Free trial
    • Subscribe
    • XpertHR USA
  • Webinars
  • OHW+

CoronavirusApprenticeshipsLatest NewsJob creation and lossesLabour market

Coronavirus could push youth unemployment over 1 million

by Jo Faragher 6 May 2020
by Jo Faragher 6 May 2020

Youth unemployment could top 1 million due to the impact of the coronavirus, according to a report from the Resolution Foundation.

The think tank’s report Class of 2020: Education leavers in the current crisis, warns that unemployment among 18 to 24-year-olds could rise by an additional 640,000 this year, bringing total youth unemployment to just over a million.

It also predicts that employment rates for graduates entering the labour market will be 13% lower in three years’ time. Lower-skilled workers’ employment rates could fall by as much as 37%, it adds.

A larger proportion of people looking to begin their careers in sectors that are currently “shut down”, such as retail and hospitality, will see their employment prospects decline over the medium to long term.

“The 800,000 young people set to leave education this year amid an unprecedented economic crisis are facing huge immediate unemployment risks, and longer-term damage to their careers,” said report author Kathleen Henehan, a research and policy analyst.

“The ‘corona class of 2020’ could face years of reduced pay and limited job prospects, long after the current economic storm has passed, unless additional support is provided fast.

“The government must therefore work with education providers and businesses to do everything they can to limit these long-term scarring effects.”

Those who are working are also likely to face reduced pay. The report finds that, one year after leaving education, the pay of graduates is projected to be 7% lower, and 9% and 19% lower for mid and low-skilled workers respectively.

The Resolution Foundation demands “swift and sweeping” policy response from the government to “reduce the amount of scarring that today’s education leavers experience”.

It urges the government to prioritise support in two areas: helping more young people to stay in education for longer, and targeting job support at those who are entering the labour market for the first time.

Its suggestions include:

  • A job guarantee scheme similar to the Future Jobs Fund, where the state works with employers, charities and local authorities to offer temporary jobs to young unemployed people
  • Flexible arrangements to allow students to remain in education for a further six months
  • Robust, targeted and regional interventions to support young people into work, based on timely labour market information
  • Contingency measures to ensure that young people that have been unable to access work-based training – for example as part of an apprenticeship – do not fall through the cracks
  • A system of additional maintenance support for students, such as means-tested maintenance loans or bursaries, or offering student finance on a modular basis so students don’t have to worry about being ‘locked in’ to completing a full course.

Alex Beer, welfare programme head at the Nuffield Foundation, which supported the research, said the coronavirus crisis was “exacerbating existing inequalities”.

She said: “It is important that the government, higher education providers and employers act now to limit the long-term effects of the economic downturn, by creating opportunities for those entering work and training and supporting those who choose to stay in education.”

L&D job opportunities on Personnel Today

Browse more L&D jobs

Jo Faragher
Jo Faragher

Jo Faragher has been an employment and business journalist for 20 years. She regularly contributes to Personnel Today and writes features for a number of national business and membership magazines. She won the Willis Towers Watson HR journalist of the year award in 2015 and has been highly commended twice.

previous post
Hospital staff to receive weekly coronavirus tests
next post
California sues Uber and Lyft over driver benefits

1 comment

Avatar
Matt Garvey 6 May 2020 - 5:40 pm

The current Traineeship programme excludes young people leaving education with level 3 qualifications such as A Levels. The government could extend this programme to encompass level 3 students providing a meaningful route into the work place and apprenticeships. Traineeships are a useful tool for employers who would like to engage with future talent but do not have short term capacity. Those employers who had, pre-lockdown, anticipated employing apprentices may use a Traineeship as a short term bride until they are back to normal levels of business. It is a win for the young person and a win for the employer.

Matt Garvey, Managing Director, West Berkshire Training Consortium

Reply

Leave a Comment Cancel Reply

Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment.

You may also like

Davos 2022: ‘Invest in social jobs to save...

27 May 2022

P&O Ferries boss denies reputational damage after mass...

27 May 2022

Why Can’t Managers Manage? Chris Roebuck talks to...

27 May 2022

Parliament launches UK labour market inquiry

27 May 2022

Menopausal worker loses sex and disability discrimination claim

27 May 2022

Employers must help employees ‘flourish’ post-pandemic

27 May 2022

Age remains a barrier to upskilling finds research

27 May 2022

‘Inequality is embedded in our labour market’ says...

27 May 2022

More than £1bn of upskilling loan money has...

26 May 2022

Monkeypox advice for employers: working from home and...

26 May 2022
  • Strathclyde Business School expands its Degree Apprenticeship offer in England PROMOTED | The University of Strathclyde is expanding its programmes...Read more
  • The Search for Talent: Six Major Employer Pitfalls PROMOTED | The Great Resignation continues unabated...Read more
  • Navigating the widening “Skills Confidence Gap” in 2022, and beyond PROMOTED | Cornerstone OnDemand conducted a global study...Read more
  • Apprenticeships are the solution to your recruitment problems PROMOTED | Apprenticeships have the pulling power...Read more
  • What it really means to be mentally fit PROMOTED | What is mental fitness...Read more
  • How music can help to ease anxiety at work PROMOTED | A lot has happened since March 2020, hasn’t it?...Read more

Personnel Today Jobs
 

Search Jobs

PERSONNEL TODAY

About us
Contact us
Browse all HR topics
Email newsletters
Content feeds
Cookies policy
Privacy policy
Terms and conditions

JOBS

Personnel Today Jobs
Post a job
Why advertise with us?

EVENTS & PRODUCTS

The Personnel Today Awards
The RAD Awards
Employee Benefits
Forum for Expatriate Management
OHW+
Whatmedia

ADVERTISING & PR

Advertising opportunities
Features list 2022

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Instagram
  • Linkedin


© 2011 - 2022 DVV Media International Ltd

Personnel Today
  • Home
    • All PT content
    • Advertise
  • Email sign-up
  • Topics
    • HR Practice
    • Employee relations
    • Equality, diversity and inclusion
    • Learning & training
    • Pay & benefits
    • Wellbeing
    • Recruitment & retention
    • HR strategy
    • HR Tech
    • The HR profession
    • Global
    • All HR topics
  • Legal
    • Case law
    • Commentary
    • Flexible working
    • Legal timetable
    • Shared parental leave
    • Redundancy
    • Maternity & Paternity
    • TUPE
    • Disciplinary and grievances
    • Employer’s guides
  • AWARDS
    • Personnel Today Awards
    • The RAD Awards
    • OHW Awards
  • Jobs
    • Find a job
    • Jobs by email
    • Careers advice
    • Post a job
  • XpertHR
    • Learn more
    • Products
    • Pricing
    • Free trial
    • Subscribe
    • XpertHR USA
  • Webinars
  • OHW+