The Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development has contacted Oliver Heald as a Member of the Work and Pensions Select Committee, to highlight the findings of their quarterly Labour Market Outlook.
Whilst overall employment intentions by employers seem to have improved, the jobs outlook looks particularly depressing for young people. The latest report shows that there is a negative balance of 10 percentage points between the proportion of employers planning to cut jobs (34%) and the proportion planning to hire staff (24%). This is an improvement from the previous quarter, where the negative balance was 19%.
However, the Chartered Institute reports that the jobs outlook looks particularly depressing in local government and higher education and this has implications for young people, given that public sector organisations are more likely to recruit young people and provide Government-led schemes such as apprenticeships.
Commenting, Oliver Heald said, “I have been saying for some time that the Government needs to do more to help our young people through the recession, particularly by concentrating on apprenticeships and training. This latest set of figures is not good news and I will continue to press the Government to respond to it. I am writing to the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, highlighting this issue.”