Employment minister Pat McFadden has announced additions to Labour’s ‘Youth Guarantee’
- Businesses will receive £3,000 for every person between the ages 18 and 24that they employ who has been searching for a job for six months or more,
- Small and medium firms will be paid £2,000 for every new apprentice they take on.
- An existing jobs guarantee assuring young people a six-month job if they are on Universal Credit and have been looking for work for 18 months will also be expanded from the current age range of 18-21 up to 24-year-olds.
Coming out at around £1 billion, with an emphasis on incentivising rather than penalising, these proposals constitute at best, a small step in the right direction, at worst, another short-term solution to longer terms issues and likely to reduce the government’s credibility still further.
Critiques of government labour market policies for young people can be found on the youth unemployment and youth jobs tag at the top or bottom of this post.
See also a recent blog for the Socialist Education Association
Education, Economy and Society 