Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 21 July 2020
436. Deputy Jim O'Callaghan asked the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection the steps being taken to ensure that long-term youth unemployment does not become a consequence of the Covid-19 recession. [16852/20]
View answerGovernment policy to reduce youth unemployment is twofold:
- to create an environment in which business can succeed and create jobs; and
- to ensure that as many of these new jobs and other vacancies that arise in our economy are filled by people taken from the Live Register, including young people.
Providing education and employment opportunities to young jobseekers forms a central tenet of my Department’s Pathways to Work strategy and has been effective in reducing youth unemployment from a peak of over 30 percent in 2012 to a rate of 9.3 percent in the fourth quarter of 2019. Moreover, Ireland’s youth unemployment rate has been significantly lower than the EU27 rate for a number of years now, which highlights the progress that had been made in Ireland’s labour market recovery in recent years.
However, against the backdrop of the COVID-19 pandemic and the resulting labour market conditions, the CSO estimated youth unemployment to be at 12.8 percent for June, with the COVID-adjusted rate at just over 45 percent. This COVID-adjusted rate is considered to be the upper bound, as all claimants of the Pandemic Unemployment Payment who are not already included on the Live Register are classified as unemployed.
While planning for economic recovery it is crucial that we provide young people with holistic supports to assist them back to work and support new young entrants to compete for job vacancies in a competitive labour market. We must also not forget our disadvantaged youths who were unemployed prior to the pandemic and face significant barriers to work.
Building and enhancing the skills of the workforce will be an important element of economic recovery, having regard to the skills currently in demand and those likely to be in demand by employers in the future. SOLAS are working in partnership with officials in my Department to develop an agile response which brings together and builds on existing further education and training expertise and resources to provide the recently unemployed cohort with the ‘Skills to Compete’ in the labour market. This activation initiative will support young people to develop their transversal skills and increase employability; build digital competency so as to flourish in the changing world of work; and participate in specific training targeting growth sectors and occupations.
Intreo, the public employment service which provides job search and activation supports, will maintain a close relationship with SOLAS and the Education and Training Boards (ETBs) at a national and local level to identify appropriate opportunities for referral to re-skilling and upskilling opportunities for young jobseekers.
