Sheffield MP Louise Haigh calls for more support to prevent “lost generation”

Data from the Office for National Statistics shows that the impact has been greater for groups who were already most likely to be unemployed before the pandemic.

Young people, age 16 to 24, had the highest unemployment rate at 14 per cent between October and December of 2020. Within that group, young black people experienced the highest unemployment rate, reaching almost 42 per cent – an increase of over 17 per cent compared to the year before.

The number of people aged 18 to 24 claiming unemployment related benefits has increased by 267,900 from March 2020 to April 2021, an increase of 114 per cent. 536,000 young people aged 16 to 24 were unemployed in January to March 2021, an increase of 13,000 from the year before.

Louise Haigh said: “Young people are facing a jobs crisis and yet, by April, the Government’s struggling Kickstart scheme had created just 6,000 jobs.

“In contrast, Labour’s £30bn green economic recovery would support hundreds of thousands of vital manufacturing jobs in communities across the country.

“And our jobs promise would provide a job or training opportunity for any young person away from work or education for six months and ensure no one is away from work for more than a year.

“Boris Johnson and Rishi Sunak must do much more to create job opportunities for our young people or they risk creating a lost generation.”