Employment: Young People

(asked on 5th July 2021) - View Source

Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment he has made of the potential impact of current youth employment data on national output in each (a) region and (b) sector of the economy.


Answered by
John Glen Portrait
John Glen
Paymaster General and Minister for the Cabinet Office
This question was answered on 8th July 2021

The pandemic is expected to leave lasting ‘scars’ on the UK economy's supply capacity, reducing the overall level of output in the long term. The OBR currently assumes there will be a 3% scarring impact on the UK economy from Covid-19, of which 1% comes from labour market supply impacts. This analysis is based on the impact of the pandemic on the labour market overall. More recent forecasts from the Bank of England and the International Monetary Fund have revised down their view of scarring in light of recent data. Scarring in the labour market is likely to occur because it can take a long time for some unemployed workers to retrain or relocate appropriately.

That is why the Government has put in place a comprehensive package of support through our Plan for Jobs to help jobs and livelihoods and support the economy. We are continuing to protect jobs in every nation and region of the UK, including for younger workers, through the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme (CJRS) and Self-Employment Income Support Scheme (SEISS). Provisional HMRC statistics indicate that as at 31 May 2021, 322,400 jobs were furloughed where the employee was aged 24 or under.

As well as protecting jobs, we are also supporting young people to find new employment opportunities. This includes the £2bn Kickstart Scheme, which will create hundreds of thousands of new, fully subsidised jobs for young people, and our new Youth Offer, which provides a guaranteed foundation of support to all 18-24 year olds on Universal Credit in the Intensive Work Search group.

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