Business Hiring
Debate between Baroness Ramsey of Wall Heath and Lord Fox
Baroness Ramsey of Wall Heath (Lab)
That is a nice and easy first question. It is an honour, and slightly terrifying, to answer my first Oral Question from a previous Secretary of State for Employment. It is, however, a very interesting Question.
Summer jobs—particularly in hospitality, retail and tourism—are often a young person’s first step into the labour market. My own first summer job was as a guide at the Black Country Museum. As a Government, we are not complacent about the challenges that we face. The Government are investing £2.5 billion through the youth guarantee and the growth and skills levy to support almost 1 million young people and create up to 500,000 opportunities to earn and learn. This includes expanded work experience opportunities, skills boot camps, foundation apprenticeships, sector-based work academy programmes and incentives for employers to hire young apprentices. Alongside this, the Government are supporting hospitality businesses through business rates reforms, sector-specific funding and measures to boost summer demand.
Lord Fox (LD)
My Lords, the Minister’s statistics match mine. There has been a bit of an uptick in employment, but not in one area: graduates. Graduates are facing a terrible time. Entry-level hiring has dropped to a 13-year low, and it dropped by 45% in January this year. There are graduates with excellent degrees from very good institutions who are receiving literally hundreds of rejections. So widespread has this become that it is deeply demoralising for an important section of society who cannot even get an interview, never mind a job. Does the Minister accept that this is a market failure? If she accepts that, what are she and her colleagues going to do to fix it?
Baroness Ramsey of Wall Heath (Lab)
I thank the noble Lord for his question but remind him that, thanks to our industrial strategy, employment is rising. Employment rights are improving too. We are determined to reduce unemployment further, especially among the young, which is why we are investing so much in the youth guarantee and are poised to go further when the Milburn review reports back later this year. I am aware of the situation where AI recruiting is impacting on graduate appointments and recruitment, and I am also aware that the Government have issued guidance to employers to ensure that this is a reducing problem, not an increasing one.