£1bn fund to tackle youth Unemployment Good idea or bad?

Going4TheDream

Not sure what I think about this

We have had several schemes in the last few days announced.. Government back mortgages for FTB etc and now a £1bn scheme to help get young people in to work.

Agreed we need to tackle youth unemployment but will this idea help create sustainable jobs or will employers see it as an opportunity to employ young people with government help on a short term basis at a low cost possibly at the expense of creating sustainable jobs?

A bit like sticking plaster over a gaping wound and not really solving the problems?

http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2011/nov/25/nick-clegg-fund-youth-unemployment

Surely we need to be 'investing' in sustainable employment and not short term schemes?

Is this a good use of £1bn (which we are not even clear about where the money is coming from) or could it be better spent in a different way to solve the problem?

Heyman_2

Going4TheDream wrote: »

will employers see it as an opportunity to employ young people with government help on a short term basis at a low cost possibly at the expense of creating sustainable jobs?

This.

Going4TheDream wrote: »

sticking plaster

And this.

heathcote123

Heyman wrote: »

This.



And this.

Yup, I'll employ one if they pay me.

paulmapp8306

Agree with the above. It wont create any jobs - but employers will now go for youg people instead of slightly (or much) older ones as it will cost them half as much. Once the employees get past 24 - they will get shut and hire new ones.

Very bad idea The WHOLE of the unemployment problem needs addressing - not just one sector of it.

paulmapp8306

Use the £1bn to build social housing - which is needed more than a short term fix of headline issues.

heathcote123

paulmapp8306 wrote: »

Agree with the above. It wont create any jobs - but employers will now go for youg people instead of slightly (or much) older ones as it will cost them half as much. Once the employees get past 24 - they will get shut and hire new ones.

Very bad idea The WHOLE of the unemployment problem needs addressing - not just one sector of it.

I think that depends a lot on the sector, if we're talking mcdonalds probably yes, but if its a skilled job & they become a useful employee, most employers would keep them on.

Recruitment is a headache.

paulmapp8306

But if they want a skilled employee, then the financial uncentive of only paying half wages means much much less so they will probably not hire the youger ones anyway (no point hiring unskilled if you need skilled whatever the incentives). Theres plenty of skilled workers already out there who need jobs too.

Graham_Devon

I don't think it will create jobs, as it's only £2,200 for the employer.

An employer may however look at the subsidy for any available low end job and take on a younger person instead to claim the money.

I thought Nick Clegg didn't like the subsidising of employers? I'm sure he stated employers should be able to simply pay a living wage in Britain?

drc

It reminds me a bit of tax credits. It's subsidised labour courtesy of the taxpayer. I don't think we should be paying firms half the cost of employing young people in order to artificially manipulate the employment figures à la Brown/Blair. If there are 100,000s of unemployed then the government needs to analyse why this is (immigration, bad education, wages too low etc) rather than treating the symptoms rather than the cause. It is exactly the same as the house building scheme.

I think the coalition are going to end up being worse than nu-Labour and I didn't think that would be possible. God help us...

IronWolf

It's better than paying them benefits, which will stop when they get one of these jobs.

The fact is that in hard times like this young people can't get jobs over older people with experience, so I think this is a good idea to help young people. but it will need to be done carefully to stop employers taking advantage of it.

ruggedtoast

Considering half our collapsed banking industry is employing its staff at enormous expense to the tax payer I don't see why young people shouldn't get some funding as well.

At least then someone may learn how to use a photocopier or plumb in a water tank, which may at some point actually be useful to the country.

We have actually had some young people in our office through various Nu-Lab schemes. A few under the unemployed graduate route, and some under the long term unemployed 20 something. Unfortunately they have been pretty dreadful, lacking even basic skills (the Cambridge Politics grad with a first, was the worst for lacking any ability to do anything practical), and often having a pretty poor attitude.

One girl stomped around like she owned the place, did everything badly and under protest, was extremely rude to everyone including senior staff, and was utterly devastated when her contract wasn't renewed.

We have employed grads under a normal route and they've been fine, but then they got through under the normal route.