YMCA responds to falling youth unemployment figures released by the Office of National Statistics.
Commenting on the fact that youth unemployment has fallen by 75,000 from the last quarter*, Denise Hatton, Chief Executive of YMCA England, said: “YMCA welcomes the news that youth unemployment has fallen once again and that the continuing trend is of more young people in work.
“Contrary to much of the rhetoric surrounding those accessing the social security system, the reality is that most young people who find themselves out of work desperately want to find employment, and this is borne out in these figures.
“However, in order for this trend to continue, work still needs to be done to help more young people find long-term and, importantly, sustainable employment.
“YMCA research recently found that some of the arrangements designed to support young people are in need of reform with job centres, in particular, failing in their purpose. Our work uncovered evidence of a dehumanising service for many of those who accessed its services that, in some cases, even set back their journeys into employment.
“We believe that the job centre improvements we highlighted in ‘Safety Net or Springboard?’ should be central to Government efforts to ensure this recent positive employment trend is both sustained and long-term.”
Read what YMCA believes should be done to support more young people into work in ‘Safety Net or Springboard?’.
*Latest stats courtesy of Office of National Statistics (16 December 2015)