"Young Persons Work" Guarantee

Last weekend, the Labour Party had its annual conference in Galway. At the conference, I highlighted my growing concerns for the increasing amount of young people who are now unemployed and some proposals that could be initiated to tackle this. Below is a brief summary of the main points I made::

FACTS:

Unemployment leaves people stressful and unhappy.
The psychological imprint of joblessness leads to a loss of self esteem, fatalism and a loss of control over daily life.
The longer the period of unemployment, the harder the re-entry into the workforce.
Young unemployed people carry forward a "20% wage scar" all their working life.

The under 25's represent 26.6% of total unemployment, even though this age cohort only make up 13 % of the total labour force.

Labour Party Proposal on Youth Unemployment:

There needs to be a range of training, education and employment service opportunities available for unemployed people, to improve their employability.
A key priority should be on interventions aimed at preventing the drift of unemployed people into long term unemployment as well as the prevention of early school leaving.
There is a growing problem of youth unemployment, particularly affecting those who have recently or will soon leave second and third level education. It is important for them to maintain contact with the labour market. In this regard, an expanded range of training education and work experience opportunities should be provided and guaranteed.
The setting up of a Young Persons Guarantee would assure any person between 18-24 who has been out of work for 12 months has a number of progressive options, other than the dole queue.