Raising Understanding, Opening Minds
Aims
Our aim is to work with the community to tackle some of societies most pressing local and national issues; Through a number of youth projects and consultations we have asked young people what it is that they would like to improve and why? They have targeted issues that will affect our communities for years to come. The first issues the company has focused on is that of lowering youth and artist unemployment. One in five unemployed young people claim that finding a job in the next year is "unachievable", warns a Prince's Trust and RBS report. The Arts have received major cuts over the last few years, with funding also reduced the possibility of artists securing contracts has reduced drastically.
Youth unemployment has risen in each of the last three recessions and the immediate years following their end. The current total of 1.04 million compares with peaks of 924,000 in 1993 and 1.2 million in 1984. Excluding students, today’s total of 731,000 (10 per cent of the youth population).
However because the number of students has been rising, just looking at young people not in full time education, the unemployment proportion was 17.2 per cent in the final quarter of 2011, the highest since records began.
IT REMAINS A DIFFICULT TIME FOR THE YOUNG UNEMPLOYED AND THE LONGER THEY ARE OUT OF WORK THE MORE LIKELY THEY ARE TO SINK INTO A SPIRAL OF DISAPPOINTMENT AND DEPRESSION.
Local
Stoke-on-Trent has been hardest hit with 2,615 young people claiming unemployment benefits, an increase of 20% on last year. Young people in Stoke-on-Trent desperately need action on jobs as long term youth unemployment continues to rise. Young people in Stoke-on-Trent are paying the price. The number of young people out of work for a year in Stoke-on-Trent North is up 175% in the last year.
The number of young people claiming unemployment benefit in North Staffordshire has increased dramatically in the last year, latest figures shown. Data released by the Office of National Statistics shows a 16% rise in the number of 16-24 year olds claiming unemployment benefit between December 2010 and December 2011, to a total of 4,395 people.
National
In March 2013 the number of young people aged 16-24 without a job rose to 993,000 over the three months, taking the youth unemployment rate to 21.2%.
Neet unemployment is an issue in the UK. A report in March found that a lack of computer skills could be damaging the career chances of young Britons, after more than one in 10 said they did not think their computer skills were good enough to use in the job they want.
The Prince's Trust said research among 1,378 British 15 to 25-year-olds, including 265 Neets, found that one in 10 cannot send their CV online, while a quarter dreaded filling in online job applications.
International
Young people are giving up on the search for work depriving society of a generation of skilled workers, a report by a UN agency has warned. It revealed global youth unemployment has risen to near its crisis peak and predicted it will keep rising over the next five years.
The report by the International Labour Office also warned of the social unrest risked by large swaths of the young population out of work and highlighted a rise in the number of young people neither in employment nor in education or training, the so-called Neet group.
The ILO said the youth unemployment rate, which had been falling after hitting 12.7% in 2009, has climbed this year to 12.6%, and the rate – which covers those aged between 15 and 24 – is forecast to reach 12.8% by 2018.
Painting a grim picture for school leavers and graduates across large parts of the world, the ILO said young people continue to be almost three times more likely than adults to be unemployed.
"The weakening of the global recovery in 2012 and 2013 has further aggravated the youth jobs crisis and the queues for available jobs have become longer and longer for some unfortunate jobseekers. So long, in fact, that many youth are giving up on the job search," said the ILO's Global Employment Trends for Youth 2013 report.
The Neet rate in OECD countries increased by 2.1 percentage points to reach 15.8% between 2008 and 2010. "In other words, around one in six young persons are without a job and not in education or training. In the European countries these trends are more pronounced both before and after the peak of the economic crisis," the report said.