UK Edition
Young people have suffered the sharpest rise in unemployment in nearly three decades during the pandemic, with recent education leavers and young black people hit hardest.
Despite the Government's furlough scheme holding back a feared surge in joblessness, young people have “borne the brunt” of the labour market damage caused by Covid-19, according to the Resolution Foundation.
It said unemployment among 18-to-24 year olds rose by nearly a fifth between the second and third quarter of 2020 - the first six months of the pandemic in Britain - marking the largest quarterly climb since 1992.
Kathleen Henehan, an analyst at the Resolution Foundation, said: “This pandemic has created a highly generationally unequal unemployment surge, and widened pre-existing gaps between different ethnic groups.
“Young people have sacrificed their livelihoods in order to save the lives of others from Covid-19, and putting their careers back on track must be a priority for the Government in the months and years ahead.”
The living standards think-tank called for the Government to extend its Kickstart scheme, a temporary work programme aimed at young people who are at risk of long-term unemployment.
The scheme, which aims to create 250,000 six-month-long minimum-wage jobs at at least 25 hours per week, is due to lapse at the end of the year.
The Resolution Foundation said it should continue beyond December, arguing the Government should maintain a “laser-like focus” on policies to keep the cohort progress.
Economists have warned that the pandemic could create long-term economic “scarring” if temporary joblessness turns into permanent unemployment.
Analysis by the Institute for Fiscal Studies has shown that young people are particularly likely to lose their jobs during the pandemic because they are concentrated into sectors such as retail and hospitality.
But Bank of England Governor Andrew Bailey said last month that scarring from the Covid-19 recession should be smaller than past economic slumps, in part because less retraining will be needed.
The Resolution Foundation’s analysis found that there was further racial disparities among young education leavers. One in six people with an Asian background aged 16–24 who recently left education are unemployed, while the figure rises to one in three for young black people.
Those groups – which were already behind white counterparts in terms of employment before the current crisis – have also seen the sharpest rise in joblessness through the pandemic.
In general, women who have recently left education had a lower unemployment rate than men, but they saw a sharper rise in unemployment since the start of the Covid-19 crisis. The disparity may be linked to the predominance of female employees in consumer-facing services jobs, which have been severely disrupted due to restrictions.
“As the UK begins to emerge from Covid-19, and much of the economy begins to re-open, policy will need to recognise the sacrifices younger people have made in order to reduce the spread of the virus and ultimately save lives,” the report said.