Fall in youth unemployment
Posted on: 23 January 2013
The number of unemployed young people under the age of 25 has again fallen this month from 2,700 in November to 2,675 in December – a decrease of 0.9%, following the national trend.
Significantly this figure is nearly 20% lower than in December 2011.
The total number of people claiming Job Seekers Allowance has increased by only 66 claimants between November and December from 9,207 to 9,273, however, this is not unexpected given the seasonal nature of Devon’s labour market.
The proportion of working age population claiming Job Seeker’s Allowance remains at 2% – well below the national average of 3.7%.
Over the year the number of people claiming JSA in Devon has fallen by 9% (or 921 claimants). This outperforms the UK average where the number of JSA claimants has fallen by 2.9% over the same period.
Leader of Devon County Council, John Hart says; “Despite the slight increase this month, the number of people claiming JSA across Devon continues to move in the right direction and displays the resilience of Devon’s labour market in these difficult economic times. What’s particularly good to see is the decrease in the number of people aged 24 and under claiming JSA since last month and more notably since last year, a trend which is hoped to continue into 2013.”
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Presently, there is a lot of pre employment training being undertaken by local training providers, in an attempt to give job seekers of all ages, but primarily young people, skills to help them back to work. Using funds from the Skills Funding Agency, we are able to fund accredited Units in subjects such as CV Writing, Food Handling, Interview techniques and many others. There is also a network of companies, in partnership with the JCP, who are offering ‘job clubs’ for young people. The advent of Sector Based Work Academies, where individuals can learn sector specific skills, in conjunction with local employers offering work placenments, has seen some very positive employment outcomes for job seekers. Without providing hard data, i feel schemes as mentoned above will be having an affect on jobless figures.