Youth unemployment in Gloucestershire doubles in six years
THE number of young people out of work has almost doubled in Gloucestershire in six years.
Statistics reveal that although those aged 18 to 24 claiming benefits dropped from 3,070 to 3,020 from August to September this year, the number in January 2006 was 1,670.
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Barry Jackson
It comes as a national study by The Prince's Trust showed the number of young people out of work for longer than two years has more than doubled since 2008. It said there has been a 168 per cent increase, with an even bigger jump in 18 to 24-year-olds out of work for at least six months.
Careers coach Barry Jackson said there are less jobs to go around – but youngsters and schools can do more to maximise the chances of landing a job.
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"It's even more important that youngsters know how to thrive in the job market," said Mr Jackson, who runs his own training company, Aspire Academy, from his Churchdown home.
"Schools are doing a lot more right in careers than they ever have but the problem is that schools are not measured for outcomes in terms of jobs.
"It's not that they're doing the wrong stuff – they concentrate on the obvious things like CV writing and interview technique, which is great. But the sort of questions they need to address are things like how do you identify the areas where the jobs are and how to recognise an area for a career."
The figures from Nomis, for the Office for National Statistics, show the lowest number of benefit claimants in that age group stood at 1,295 in the county in December 2007 but hit 3,590 in August 2009.
Latest overall unemployment figures show a downward trend after a blip last month, but the total number remains up year on year.
Figures released yesterday by ONS show the total number of people claiming job seekers allowance for the county stood at 10,123 in September – an overall rate of 2.7 per cent.
That's an extra 514 claimants compared with the same time last year.
In August the figure had risen to 10,310 – an increase of 93 on the previous month.
Nationally unemployment fell by 50,000 between June and August to 2.53 million, the figures show, equivalent to a rate of 7.9 per cent.
The jobless figures district by district were: Cheltenham: 2,374, down from 2,377 in August; Cotswolds: 701, down from 762; Forest of Dean: 1,345, down from 1,364; Gloucester: 3,148, down from 3,190; Stroud: 1,463, down from 1,479 and Tewkesbury 1,092, down from 1,138.
The unemployment rate remains highest in Gloucester, at 4.1 per cent of the population.
Cheltenham has the next highest rate – 3.2 per cent. In Stroud the figure is 2.1 per cent, in Tewkesbury the figure is 2.2 per cent and in the Forest of Dean it is 2.6 per cent.
The Cotswolds has the lowest rate of unemployment in the county, standing at 1.4 per cent.
Comments
by TIMONLINE2010
Thursday, October 18 2012, 10:55PM
“But to say that there are no jobs is simply not true, else job centres may as well just close down!”
by Joe_Sucksmith
Thursday, October 18 2012, 10:45PM
“"So when people say that there are no jobs about, what they actually mean is that there are no jobs they wish to do." (disco2disco)
Err, no. What they mean is that there are WAY more job-seekers than there are job vacancies. This is a statistical fact, confirmed year on year by the ONS. See the dataset available at the following link (specifically column MM) for further detail:
http://tinyurl.com/92f8f5v
And so we're back to the dogs and bones again: if 9 bones are buried in a field and 10 dogs sent in to bring back a bone, then - as a matter of accounting - one MUST return bone-less.
Pity the unemployed in the economic wasteland being constructed by the Tories...”
by TIMONLINE2010
Thursday, October 18 2012, 3:38PM
“It's quite ludicrous that people get benefit pay-outs on the pretense that they're looking for work!”
by disco2disco
Thursday, October 18 2012, 1:20PM
“I've advertised for jobs in the past for 8 hours a week, and the reason is simple. Its just a start so you can determine if the person is any good before committing yourself to giving out more hours. Same as Christmas temp jobs turn into permanent jobs for the right people.
Also I know of several people who have had more than one part time job in the past and currently. So when people say that there are no jobs about, what they actually mean is that there are no jobs they wish to do. A part time job today is a full time job tomorrow.
How do these eastern europeans find work over here if there are no jobs available? No one over here at the age of 18 wants to clean houses for £10 an hour.”
by SandraPee
Thursday, October 18 2012, 11:19AM
“Glos Lad34 is a prime example of the way things have been going ........ one day 4 hours ! That's not a proper job ! There are too many part time jobs starting at 8 hours a week being created .
Couple this with the number of older people looking for jobs who need a decent income to make ends meet and you can see the true problem.
Political slanging matches about who's fault it is only goes to infuriate and depress people .”
by SG1970
Thursday, October 18 2012, 11:04AM
“Didn't realise that the Tories had been in for six years Selina. Care to explain your comment a bit?”
by Glos_Lad34
Thursday, October 18 2012, 9:42AM
“@Selina
That's true I'm sort off still unemployed as only employed 1 day for 4 hours at Matalan.”
by SELINA30
Thursday, October 18 2012, 9:13AM
“A sad indictment of a failed government economic policy.”