One in three employers has cut the number of jobs available to new-starts - school-leavers and workers without qualifications - in the past year.
Little wonder therefore, that there are currently a million 16 to 24 year-olds not in education, employment or training!
Former Blairite Minister, Alan Milburn was asked to look at the "NEET" problem and published an interim report in May, which found its "cause" inside the heads of these jobless youngsters!
Yup: "A rising tide of mental ill-health, anxiety, depression [andl neurodiversity is a central driver of economic inactivity among young people" So, it's not the fact that there are no decent jobs out there? This "interim answer" is - to put it politely - "bollocks"!
The government's response is to announce a £1bn "training allowance" for school leavers so that they'll stay in education. And companies are to be given £3,000 for every NEET they employ for 6 months - with no requirement to keep them afterwards! It may tackle the statistics, but certainly won't tackle the problem!
This "solution" is no different from the host of schemes from YOP to YTS, to Kickstart, which, ever since the de-industrialisation of the British economy in the 1970s, has been a panacea offered by every government - even Thatcher's - to appear to do something about the lack of real jobs in today's capitalist economy. They jump to cover the bosses' backs and what's more, give them a hand-out at taxpayers' expense.
The CEO of the British Retail Consortium claims that his organisation is "coming to the rescue", by providing... unpaid job placements at the behest of Andy Burnham! Free labour! So this month, Tesco, Asda, M&S, Amazon, Boots, JD Sports, John Lewis, among others, will offer up to 4 weeks of unpaid work "experience" for young workers, but with no guarantee of a job thereafter.
In the meantime the job-slashing continues. Just as Chancellor Healey was talking up plans for "growth" last week, Jaguar Land Rover announced 4,000 job cuts. Another 3,800 are to be cut at Whitbread's, 2,000 at the BBC, hundreds at Ladbrokes, the Mirror and Express... etc...
The bosses expect the workers to pay for the crisis in their rotten, ever-more exploitative system. We cannot and will not. It's time to put our (collective!) foot down!