According to the European Commissioner responsible for employment, the UK Government’s scheme to tackle youth unemployment is not enough. Laszlo Andor said youth unemployment was too high and the Government’s Youth Contract, which has been championed by Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg, was not doing enough to tackle the problem.
It is the latest attack on the Government from Mr Andor, whose previous criticism of David Cameron’s “nasty” looking restrictions on benefits for foreigners, led an angry Prime Minister to lodge a formal complaint.
Figures released last month showed 912,000 young people aged 16-24 were unemployed in November 2013 to January 2014, down 29,000 on the previous quarter and down 81,000 on the previous year.
The unemployment rate for 16-24 year-olds was 19.8%, down 0.7% on the previous quarter and 1.4% lower than the previous year. In Scotland, the youth unemployment rate was the same but the latest figures show it had actually increased by 2.1% year-on-year. Read More
