Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 2 June 2021
143. Deputy Thomas Pringle asked the Minister for Social Protection the measures her Department is taking to address the high levels of youth unemployment; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [30100/21]
View answerAs the Deputy will be aware, the experience of past recessions indicates that youth employment tends to be significantly impacted by any labour market shock. This is because many employers operate a "last in-first out" protocol when reducing their labour force. Moreover, in the case of the COVID-19 pandemic, the impact on our youth is driven by the tendency for many younger people to work in some of the sectors most severely impacted by the pandemic; namely accommodation and food and retail.
Prior to the pandemic, seasonally adjusted youth unemployment (15-24 year olds) stood at just under 12% in December 2019. Latest estimates from the CSO, however, show that by the end of April 2021, this figure had increased to almost 16.8%. These estimates exclude those in receipt of the Pandemic Unemployment Payment (PUP). Including all those in receipt of the PUP gives a COVID-19 adjusted unemployment rate estimate 61.8% for young people at the end of April.
A significant number of PUP recipients are students. As of this week, it is estimated that approximately 38,000 PUP recipients are students, with almost 90 percent of these in the under 25 cohort. Using international measures of unemployment, set by the International Labour Organisation, students are generally not counted as unemployed, as they are not considered part of the labour force. Therefore, the inclusion of recipients of PUP, including students, in the COVID-19 adjusted measure of youth unemployment inflates this measure.
While the employment of young people has been significantly affected by the pandemic, we also know from past recessions that youth unemployment levels typically fall quite quickly once economic activity resumes. In addition, the jobs of many persons currently on PUP will not be permanently lost due to the pandemic. Many have already and will continue to return to their previous employment as sectoral restrictions ease – as they did during previous easing of restrictions during 2020.
However, others will require assistance and support to return to employment, reskill and to find new jobs. As a consequence, my Department supports a range of initiatives to assist people, including young people, get back to work, as COVID-19 restrictions and their impact on the economy and labour market eases.
Under the Government’s national Economic Recovery Plan launched this week, a central focus of the recovery process will be on helping people get back to work, training or education by extending labour market supports, and through intense activation and skills opportunities. Pathways to Work 2021-2025, which is currently being finalised by my Department for launch later this month, will be a key delivery mechanism of the Economic Recovery Plan’s second Pillar on ‘Helping People Back into Work’.
This forthcoming strategy focusses on helping people back into employment, training and education, thereby minimising the long-term scarring effects of the pandemic on the labour force for those whose jobs are permanently lost. It has an overall target of increasing the caseload of the Public Employment Service by 100,000 per annum.
Some of the key supports that will form part of the National Recovery Plan include:
- A new Work Placement Experience Programme, to reach 10,000 participants by end-2022, for those out of work for at least six months, regardless of age.
- New Youth Employment Charter for intensive engagement with young jobseekers, building on the EU’s new Reinforced Youth Guarantee.
- Expanding the JobsPlus scheme to 8,000 places and enhancing the incentive to recruit young jobseekers in particular, by increasing the youth age limit from 25 to 30 years (with a 6 month duration of unemployment).
- Accelerating rollout of an additional 50,000 education and training places (15,000 increase on the July Jobs Stimulus commitment) to support jobseekers to upskill and reskill for the labour market.
With regard to apprenticeships, a significant recovery in apprenticeship registration numbers followed the introduction of the apprenticeship incentivisation scheme, which is continuing in 2021. In addition, the Action Plan for Apprenticeship 2021-2025, launched in April by my colleague Minister Harris, sets out a five-year strategy to deliver on the Programme for Government commitment of reaching 10,000 new apprentice registrations per year by 2025. The plan provides a roadmap to a single apprenticeship system and new supports for employers and apprentices, which will prove attractive for many young people.
Under the National Recovery and Resilience Plan, the EU supported €114 million SOLAS Recovery Skills Response Programme will see a range of additional educational and training programmes rolled out as part of the Skills to Compete. This includes the establishment of the SOLAS Green Skills Action programme focusing on providing training to address climate and low carbon economy issues. This will ensure workers, including young people, have the necessary skills to be resilient and competitive in our changing economy.
I trust this clarifies matters for the Deputy.
