Young jobless - blaming Europe is not good enough
Austerity programme has failed young people - and competition from foreign workers doesn't help
UNEMPLOYMENT figures are grim. Overall unemployment has risen to 8.3 per cent, the highest level since 1994, while youth unemployment has passed the symbolic million mark. Britain's education system has come under fire, but others point out that even graduates are struggling to find work in a stagnant economy. So what's the government doing?
Youth suffer more
Youth unemployment is unlike other kinds, says an editorial in The Times. Unemployed older adults may have skills and experience going to waste, but younger people may not have any skills at all, and by the time the economy recovers they may be less employable still, "having stepped from the treadmill of education into the swamp of unwork".
The moral justification of capitalism is meritocracy, but surging youth unemployment strips that justification away, adds the Times. While the coalition has performed well in deficit reduction, "rising youth unemployment shows that Britain is not on the right track".
System rewards idleness
There are no easy answers, says an editorial in The Daily Telegraph. While the economy remains stagnant, employers are more likely to retain older workers and halt recruitment, and the private sector is not taking up the slack caused by spending cuts in the public sector.
But there are structural problems too, adds the Telegraph. In London and other big cities, young people face competition from foreign workers. This reflects a failure of our education system, and "a system that offers greater reward for idleness than for taking a low-paid job".
Yes, the brutal truth is that businesses prefer the most hard-working and reliable recruits in troubled times, says an editorial the Daily Mail. Employers say, time and again, the best candidates are from abroad. "Until ministers fix an education system which continues to churn out unmotivated, uneducated school leavers who struggle to perform basic tasks that's unlikely to change."
Bad policy makes things worse
Ministers point out that high youth unemployment is a long-standing problem but their policies have made a bad situation worse, says George Eaton in the New Statesman. Since it came to power, the coalition has scrapped the Future Jobs Fund, abolished the Education Maintenance Allowance and reduced university places next year. All these measures have exacerbated the jobs crisis.
The government has already been forced to increase borrowing to cover welfare payments, adds Eaton. "As the self-defeating nature of austerity becomes clear, the pressure for a change of course will become even greater."
No growth, no jobs
Chancellor George Osborne has been relying on a virtuous circle of higher growth generating more revenue, boosting jobs and reducing the benefits bill, says an editorial in The Independent. But these unemployment figures show that the fundamentals of Osborne's calculations "have gone disastrously awry".
The coalition took a huge economic gamble when it came to power last May, says an editorial in The Guardian. It set about cutting public spending fast and bet the economy would not suffer too much as a result.
But what happens now, asks the Guardian. So far the government's policy seems to be to blame it on the euro and hope the Bank of England pumps more money into the financial markets. "Their economic policy has been shown to be wrong: it's time for a replacement." ·
