Young Jobseekers & School Leavers Face Finding a Job Postcode Lottery

PRLog (Press Release) - Aug. 23, 2012 - A recent study suggests that five years of "empty promises" have left young jobseekers facing a postcode lottery when it comes to finding employment.  

If you are eagerly awaiting your GCSE results today you may be interested to note that this report argues that there is a north south divide with youngsters in the North East and Scotland seeing the worst prospects.   London and the South East remain relatively unaffected by youth unemployment, according to Ambitious Minds, who are education specialists.

This all adds up to the fact that this year’s school leavers are facing some of the hardest job finding dilemmas than any other secondary school year group for 70 years.  When they began their education, and started secondary school unemployment rates were low, but the last five years have seen "economic deterioration, systemic failures, false dawns and empty promises," the report says.

Ambitious Minds looked at the impact of the recession on job prospects and found areas of youth unemployment in the UK, based on published figures.  Scotland was among several areas with rises in youth unemployment and saw a rise of 3.5 per cent over the last five years, twice as much as London which increased by 1.4 per cent.
North Ayrshire was the second-worst affected region seeing youth unemployment rise from 6.5% to 12.6%.

A Scottish spokesman said: "Scotland (http://www.simply-postcode-lookup.com/geographic_data.htm) has an overall lower rate of unemployment than the rest of the UK as well as a higher youth employment rate. Sixteen to 24 year olds have also seen the largest increase in employment of any key age group - up by 10,000 - over the last year."  

"Last year saw record numbers of pupils leaving school for positive destinations such as training, employment or further study. We have also guaranteed every 16 to 19 year-old a place in learning or education though Opportunities For All, and will continue discussions with employers on how young people can help grow their business."

Sean McGuire, chief executive of Ambitious Minds, said: "Those areas which have suffered disproportionately in the last five years need support to prevent unemployment, and especially long-term unemployment, becoming normalised."

Official unemployment figures showed that in the three months to June, 1.01 million 16 to 24 year olds in the UK were considered out of work, this was 4000 down on the previous three months.   Whether this is good news for the GCSE hopefuls remains to be seen, or whether they face a job finding postcode (http://www.simply-postcode-lookup.com/for_web.htm) lottery over the next three months.