This article makes an interesting reference to the consequences of predatory, profit-maximizing, corporate capitalism, and its contrast with "ordo-liberalism" and social capitalist democracies of Europe. Recall the European Work Councils post here not long ago. Does the UK have these EU EWCs?
For London Youth, Down and Out Is Way of Life
By LANDON THOMAS Jr.
Published: February 15, 2012
“If
you are not working, in training or in college, you might as well be
a thief — employers just do not take you seriously,” Ms. Edwards
said. “At some point, you just say, ‘I’m stuck and I will never
find a job.’ ”
Perhaps
the most debilitating consequence of the euro zone’s economic
downturn and its debt-driven austerity crusade has been the soaring
rate of youth unemployment. Spain’s jobless rate for people ages 16
to 24 is approaching 50 percent. Greece’s is 48 percent, and
Portugal’s and Italy’s, 30 percent. Here in Britain, the rate is
22.3 percent, the highest since such data began being collected in
1992. (The comparable rate for Americans is 18 percent.)
The
lack of opportunity is feeding a mounting alienation and anger among
young people across Europe — animus that threatens to poison the
aspirations of a generation and has already served as a wellspring
for a number of violent protests in European cities from Athens to
London. And new economic data on Wednesday, showing much of Europe in
the doldrums or recession, does little to bolster hopes for a better
jobs picture anytime soon.
Experts
say that the majority of those who took to the streets in London last
summer were young people who were unemployed, out of school and not
participating in a job training program.
Classified
by statisticians as NEETs (not in education, employment or training),
they number about 1.3 million, or one of every five
16-to-24-year-olds in the country.
While
youth unemployment has long been a chronic issue here, experts say
the British government’s debt-reduction commitment to rein in
social spending appears to be making the problem worse. Insufficient
job training and apprenticeship programs, they argue, contribute to
the large pool of permanently unemployed young people in Britain.
“It
is patently wrong for young people to have such a poor start in life,
when there is so much more we could be doing,” said Hilary
Steedman, an economist at the London School of Economics. “Just
because they did not go to university does not mean they don’t want
to work.”
Many
young people here spend endless months applying for technical jobs
for which they do not have adequate training. In many cases, months
turn into years, with people remaining on the dole indefinitely. In
the most recent fiscal year, the government paid £4.2 billion ($6.6
billion) in benefits to this age group, at least some of which might
be better spent on job training, some experts argue.
“A
well-financed apprenticeship program is an important social
investment that can enhance the competitive capacity of an economy,”
said John P. Martin, an economist at the Organization for Economic
Cooperation and Development in Paris, who studies labor market issues
across Europe.
Ms.
Steedman, a specialist in vocational training, said that Britain lags
far behind countries like Germany, Austria and the Netherlands in its
use of training programs to introduce young people to permanent work.
Fewer
than one in 10 employers in Britain offered apprenticeships in 2010,
she said, compared with at least a quarter of employers in Germany,
Austria and Switzerland. And while government financing for such
programs has increased in the last few years, Ms. Steedman said that
much of the money went to training existing workers 25 years and
older rather than building the skills of 18-to-20-year-olds.
“It’s
completely perverse,” she said, pointing out that 40 percent of the
500,000 or so apprenticeships go to people age 25 or older.
“Companies are subsidizing 25-year-olds who already have jobs.”....
for the rest of article see link below
- tomfrom66
- Thornton Cleveleys, UK
I wish this article was on every front page in Britain, and on every news channel.
This dystopia is the result of decisions taken by Margaret Thatcher in the 1980s which had the effect of de-industrialising Britain in favour of the City of London.
Mrs Thatcher genuinely believed that Britain could make its way in the world as a financial centre, and a service economy.
A series of ruinous housing bubbles fed the illusion that all was well, but we all know where that ended.
The current government is now requiring unemployed young people to work for the Job Seekers Allowance - workfare - which is having entirely forseeable consequences: Tesco recently advertised for a night worker to work for JSA and expenses.
The reality of the government's Work Programme is the undermining of the Minimum Wage.
This dystopia is the result of decisions taken by Margaret Thatcher in the 1980s which had the effect of de-industrialising Britain in favour of the City of London.
Mrs Thatcher genuinely believed that Britain could make its way in the world as a financial centre, and a service economy.
A series of ruinous housing bubbles fed the illusion that all was well, but we all know where that ended.
The current government is now requiring unemployed young people to work for the Job Seekers Allowance - workfare - which is having entirely forseeable consequences: Tesco recently advertised for a night worker to work for JSA and expenses.
The reality of the government's Work Programme is the undermining of the Minimum Wage.
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