This paper presents the latest statistics on youth unemployment in the UK as well as comparisons with other EU countries.
Youth unemployment statistics (1 MB, PDF)
|
Impact of coronavirus (Covid-19) Since the start of the pandemic there has been a large increase in unemployment and a large fall in employment for young people aged 16-24. Comparing the latest quarter, December 2020-February 2021, with the pre-pandemic quarter of January-March 2020: · Unemployment for young people has increased by 52,000, a 10% increase. The increase for men was 27,000, a 9% increase, while the increase for women was 25,000, an 11% increase. · The unemployment rate has increased to 14.3% from 12.1%. · The number of young people in employment has fallen by 336,000, an 9% fall. The fall for men has been larger, with employment levels falling by 11% for men and by 7% for women. · 249,000 more young people have become economically inactive, an increase of 10%. The number of people aged 18-24 claiming unemployment related benefits has increased by 263,700 from February 2020 to March 2021, an increase of 110%. This was driven by increases from March to May when the number of claimants more than doubled. Since May the youth claimant count has fallen slightly. Some of the increase since March will be due to employed people who have become eligible for Universal Credit as part of the government response. As at 28 February, 830,500 jobs held by those aged 24 or under were on furlough, which was 22% of eligible jobs. Almost two million jobs held by young people, and almost half of eligible jobs, were furloughed at some point between March and the end of July. More information can be found in the Library briefing Coronavirus: Impact on the labour market. |
575,000 young people aged 16-24 were unemployed in December 2020-February 2021, a decrease of 17,000 from the previous quarter but an increase of 61,000 from the year before. Recent levels of youth unemployment are at their highest since 2016, although by historical standards, unemployment levels for young people remain low.
For context, it is worth noting that the total population aged 16-24 has been declining in recent years; in the year to December 2020-February 2021, it decreased by 39,000.
The number of young people in employment fell by 105,000 since the previous quarter and fell by 368,000 from the previous year to 3.46 million.
The number who are economically inactive (not in or looking for work) increased by 112,000 from the previous quarter and increased by 268,000 from the previous year to 2.81 million.
The unemployment rate (the proportion of the economically active population who are unemployed) for 16-24 year olds was 14.3% in December 2020-February 2021. This is up from 14.2% in the previous quarter but up from 11.8% a year before.
Youth unemployment statistics (1 MB, PDF)
A Westminster Hall debate on the ‘Proposed closure of GKN Automotive plant in Birmingham’ has been scheduled for Wednesday 28 April 2021 from 9.25 am. The debate has been initiated by Jack Dromey MP.
Cash remains a vital payment method for more vulnerable people, but its wider use is in decline. How will Government and industry protect access to cash?
A Westminster Hall debate on ‘Fire and rehire tactics’ has been scheduled for Tuesday 27 April 2021 from 2.30-4pm. The debate has been initiated by Kate Osborne MP.
