Young, male and unemployed: What to do with Britain's youth? | 13.09.11

The scenes of young men and women provoking the police, smashing windows, setting fire to shops and looting have sent shock waves across England. Now that the violence has subsided and sentences are being handed out, people from all walks of life have been grappling with why.

This event will focus on one particular problem - unemployed young men. Unemployment in this group has risen steadily during the last decade and now (unlike that for older workers) exceeds the peak reached in the 1990s recession. Unemployment is now triple the rate for those under 24 than for older men. 64,000 men under 24 years old have been claiming Jobseeker's Allowance for over six months: more than twice the equivalent figure for women. Being out of work for this length of time can have a long-term scarring effect, making it harder to get a job and having a severe impact on health and well-being, with many remaining in low-skilled, casual and insecure parts of the labour market many years later.

This event will look to answer the following key questions:

What role do incentives play and are the jobs available?
Whether existing resources need to be targeted more effectively at at-risk young men
Whether there is an intrinsic difference between providing support for young men rather than women
Is the pre-Work Programme support effective?
Could support be targeted earlier in an unemployment claim?
What can be learned from the experiences of other countries?
What role is there for community groups, existing charities and mutual ventures with the private sector?
Speakers:

CHAIR: Matt Oakley - Head of Enterprise, Growth and Social Policy, Policy Exchange
Simon Marcus - Founder and Director, The Boxing Academy
Shaun Bailey - Co-Founder and Managing Director, My Generation
Shiv Malik - Journalist and Co-Author, Jilted Generation: How Britain has bankrupted it's youth

Category:

News & Politics

Tags:

• policy exchange
• young
• male
• unemployed
• young men
• neet
• youth unemployment
• unemployment
• employment
• matt oakley
• simon marcus
• boxing academy
• shaun bailey
• my generation
• shiv malik
• jilted generation