Naomi Clayton, acting director at Learning and Work Institute, said:
The Chancellor’s announcement on the extension of several Plan for Jobs schemes is welcome. With the closure of the furlough scheme, long term unemployment up by 45% and a record number of vacancies, it is vital to continue supporting people into the labour market. A new offer for those aged over 50, who were more likely to be on the furlough scheme as it ended and are far more likely to end up long-term unemployed, is essential to help avoid a long-term unemployment crisis for older workers.
But support needs to go further and reach people beyond Universal Credit. With the number of long-term unemployed 16-24 year olds rising by a third over the pandemic, the extension of Kickstart is welcome but action is needed to refocus on young people most a risk of becoming long-term unemployed. Improvements are also needed to reverse the fall in the proportion of young people starting an apprenticeship, within a longer term Youth Opportunity Guarantee to support young people to access a job, an apprenticeship, education, or a high quality training opportunity.
Our work on Coronavirus and the labour market
Research and Reports09 08 2020
A mid-life employment crisis
This report, in partnership with Centre for Ageing Better, shows that there is a real risk is that the pandemic could lead to long-term unemployment for older workers.
This briefing paper warns that a focus on creating as many Kickstart jobs as possible must not come at the expense of quality training support or potentially excluding young people that need the most help.
Time to act - Tackling the looming rise in long-term unemployment
This report explores the potential increase in long term unemployment as a result of the coronavirus crisis, and sets out the scale of support that will be needed to help people back to work.
We propose a new Into Work offer for all newly unemployed people and those facing redundancy. It will give immediate access to personalised and light-touch support so people can get back to work as quickly as possible.
This report explores the impact of the coronavirus crisis on London’s labour market and low-paid Londoners. It sets out what could be done by central government and London local government to mitigate the impact of the crisis, and build back better.