In the stronger jobs markets there were, on average, 24 unemployed people going for each retail vacancy available through Jobcentre Plus and 50 for each office vacancy. In weaker areas those figures were 66 and 44 respectively. Other results from the study were that over two-thirds of applications received no reply at all and that 78 per cent of jobs offered under £7 an hour.
One young person told their story of taking his CV into a shop: ‘The other worker who wasn’t a manager threw it in the bin, because people are trying to protect their own jobs…it’s dog-eat-dog at the moment.’
Chris Goulden, head of poverty at JRF, said: ‘This report makes for grim reading for young people. A lack of success in the jobs market saps confidence, demotivates and leaves a scar across a generation of young people, while part-time, low-pay work traps people in poverty.’
The latest unemployment figures showed a huge discrepancy between young people on the basis of their ethnic background. The unemployment rate for white 16-24 year-olds was 19 per cent while this jumped to 45 per cent for young black people and 46 for young Pakistanis and Bangladeshis. John Philpott, director of the Jobs Economist think tank said: ‘The persistence of a large unemployment rate gap between ethnic minority and white youth suggests there is a larger structural element to the problem of youth unemployment for ethnic minorities that won’t be solved by a stronger economic recovery alone.’
