ABSTRACT
Young people and unemployment: the impact of a supplyside approach Leaving school and the family are rites of passage into adulthood. The schoolto-work or education-into-employment transitions have been disrupted by structural changes in the UK economy. Whereas in the post-World War II era the majority of young people left school at the end of secondary schooling, now an increasing number stay beyond the compulsory school leaving age. These structural changes mean that fewer entry-level jobs are suitable for young people and therefore the youth employment market has all but disappeared (Furlong and Cartmel 2007; Murray and Gayle 2012). This led to increased levels of youth unemployment (Casson 1979). Youth unemployment rose more in 1980 than it had during the previous decade in total (MacDonald 2011, p. 429). In common with the current economic situation, the 1980s were a time of deep recession, social inequality, severe public spending cuts and civil disturbance. Today, almost one million young adults are unemployed, and tackling the NEET problem has remained a key youth policy since 1997 (MacDonald 2011, p. 430). Youth unemployment, while it had been a matter of concern in the UK since the last instance of mass unemployment in the 1980s, became a more pressing political issue with the most recent global economic downturn in 2008. At the start of this project, it became evident that young people with further and higher educational qualifications were becoming NEET. In the UK, unemployment among graduates, combined with increased levels of student debt, became a more acute political matter (Harrison 2013; Office for National Statistics 2013). The detrimental consequences for young people not being able to make the transition into adulthood through the usual rite of passage of paid employment are well documented and include lower lifelong earnings, as well as professional and psychological scarring (Kingsley 2011; Lee and Wright 2011; Sissons and Jones 2012). Mass unemployment in the late 1970s and early 1980s had a critical effect on young people, who as a result experienced wage scarring and limited opportunities. Therefore as individuals they were facing the possibility of life on the margins; at a societal level, large numbers of unemployed, unskilled young people posed an increased risk of creating civil disturbance, as evidenced by the riots in Brixton, Bristol and Birmingham in 1981 (Scarman et al. 1982). The Youth Training Scheme (YTS) introduced in 1983 was one of a number of policy initiatives established to address the problem of unemployment among the young. It was aimed at those of school-leaving age and it offered a one-year (later extended to two years) programme of work experience and training (MacDonald 2011). It can be viewed as a precursor to the current government’s focus on the creation of apprenticeships for young people as a solution to increased levels of unemployment. Yet the push to drive down the youth unemployment figures avoids one obvious difficulty: the lack of jobs generated by the economy. Instead it focuses on what young people are lacking in employability, attitude and qualifications. Nevertheless, since the 1980s, education policy on attainment
and subsequent access to tertiary education, employment and training has had a significant impact on the NEET category.
