Discouraged UK youth abandon seeking jobs: ILO study

A report by the International Labour Organisation (ILO), published today, warns that the UK has a significantly higher number of people discouraged from looking for a job.

The last quarter of 2009 saw, the number of 15-24-year-olds who would like to work but were not seeking a job reach 23.7 per cent in the UK, the highest in four countries analysed, according to the report.

The corresponding figure in Estonia is 16.2 per cent while just 12.3 per cent in Spain are put off looking for work even though the countries have higher unemployment rates than the UK. The fourth country analysed, Germany, has the lowest youth unemployment rate, with just 8.8 per cent of its workers discouraged from finding work.

According to Sara Elder, ILO report author, in the UK, there is danger that young people will detach themselves from the labour markets completely.

She added that they would like to work but know there is no work out there so they tend not to bother looking for jobs, which is a big loss to the global market as the people are the drivers of future economic advancement.

She added the young people not looking for a job now are generally highly educated as compared to the pre-recession setting when mostly low-skilled workers could not be bothered to find work.