- The Guardian, Monday 4 January 2010
An unemployed and dejected "lost generation" of young people will find it increasingly hard to secure jobs and attain happiness in the future, according to a survey released today.
The recession is likely to scar the lives of the almost a million people currently under 25 and out of work who are the main victims of this recession, a study by the Prince's Trust warns.
The young unemployed are already significantly less happy and confident – even about health, family relationships and friends – than those in work, it claims.
The extent to which feelings of lowered self-esteem permeate the lives of youths not in employment, education or training (so-called Neets) is revealed in a poll.
Conducted for The Prince's Trust, the YouGov Youth Index documents the psychological setbacks inflicted on 16 to 25-year-olds – including graduates and those with fewer qualifications – as they struggle to find jobs.
Unemployment currently stands at 2.49 million and latest projections are that it will peak this year at 2.8 million.
Unlike the severe recessions of the 1980s, which threw hundreds of thousands of industrial workers on to the scrapheap, this time around workforces and employers have proved more flexible in adapting working practices.
The result, according to Professor David Blanchflower, who contributed to the Prince's Trust report, has been that companies have saved money by halting recruitment.
Younger people moving from schools and colleges into the jobs market have therefore been hardest hit, he maintains.
"Firms have just simply stopped hiring," said Blanchflower, a former member of the Bank of England's monetary policy committee. "Even graduates have gone down the spiral and taken the less [demanding] jobs. It has pushed the people at the bottom out of work.
"Wages have been flexible downwards, so we haven't seen the firings we did [in the 1980s], but companies have just stopped hiring. For these kids, it's completely not their fault – but it's leading to growing levels of desperation."
Introducing the report, he wrote: "Sadly, I expect we shall see an increasingly depressed and debilitated generation who, as a result, become decreasingly likely to find work and hang on to it …
"We refer to them as 'lost' because of these profound and lasting effects of youth unemployment, on everything from wages and job satisfaction to happiness and health."
The Youth Index reveals that those out of work are significantly less happy with their health, friendships and family life than those in work. Nearly one in 10 young people claim that unemployment drove them to drugs or alcohol. The survey, based on interviews with 2,088 16 to 25-year-olds, found that unemployed young people are also more likely to feel ashamed, rejected and unloved more of the time.
Last night the employment minister, Jim Knight, said: "We know from the recessions of the '80s and '90s that long term unemployment can affect young people not just while they are out of work but for many years to come. We're also investing over £1bn to create 400,000 new youth job and training opportunities so that no young person gets stuck in long term unemployment." A quarter of young people who are or have been unemployed claim their joblessness caused arguments with parents or other family.
More than a quarter (28%) claim that unemployment caused them to exercise less, with 17% of those currently out of work getting no exercise at all.
Measured against an index of happiness and confidence expressed by young people across a range of life activities, NEETs consistently returned significantly lower scores – even in terms of their health and relationships with their families.
The Prince's Trust is planning to help 40,000 unemployed and disadvantaged young people this year find their way into work, training or education. It needs to raise a £1m million a week to continue its programme.
Martina Milburn, chief executive of The Prince's Trust said: "Young people bore the brunt of the recession last year, with one in five 16-to-24-year-olds out of work today. The result is a generation of undiscovered skills and talents. We must invest in these young people, re-building their self-esteem, to ensure that today's unemployed do not become tomorrow's unemployable."
