There are many “scarring effects” from being unemployed while young; such effects will have negative personal and, in an aggregate sense, societal implications for decades. These include higher chances for future unemployment, unrealized potential, and lower paying jobs in the future where employment is found and future mental health issues as well as a myriad of other problems (McQuaid, 2014). After the 2008 global financial crisis there was a sharp rise in youth unemployment around the world, and understandably so (Fig 1). In cutting costs for many business, the young and inexperienced workers were more often than not the first to be made redundant. Businesses who were still able to hire new workers opted for more seasoned and …show more content…
The current downward trend can be ascribed to the natural recovery experienced by the UK economy after the global financial crisis. Examining the years preceding 2008 however, it can be observed that there was already much room for improvement with regards to youth unemployment, with the previous decade varying between 11.3% and 14.7%. (Fig.2)
As of February 2015, the youth unemployment rate was at its worst for over 20 years when compared to the overall unemployment rate (Boffey, 2015). A recent report by the UK House of Commons Library put over 600,000 youth out of work with a youth unemployment rate of 14.2% down from 16.2% the previous year (Dar, 2015). It is forecasted that UK youth unemployment will only reach 14.07% by the year 2020. The question is how can policy makers and society at large drive this figure down, giving the youth the best chance of succeeding now and in the …show more content…
It was found that structural employment is a major hindrance to youth in the labour market. Among the main concerns are the underutilization of opportunities in the field of skilled trade workers, as well as under employment. Young adults are sellers of their services; but doing so within a perfectly competitive market. With many buyers and other sellers of the same services this poses a problem as firms can choose from anyone who meets their needs. The “mismatch” in the job market characterizing structural unemployment often leaves young people with either a lack of skills to “sell” or no employers to “buy” their