Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 3 February 2022
303. Deputy James O'Connor asked the Minister for Social Protection the supports announced as part of Budget 2022 to address the issue of youth employment; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [59463/21]
View answerAs the Deputy will be aware, young people in the labour market (those under 25 years of age) are particularly affected by labour market disruptions.
Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, 264,000 young people were in work and the seasonally adjusted youth unemployment rate for 2019 averaged approximately 12.5 percent. However, following the onset of the pandemic, the CSO’s ‘COVID-19 adjusted’ monthly youth unemployment rate – which included all those in receipt of the PUP – increased dramatically, peaking at almost 70 percent in May 2020.
Following the phased reopening of the economy over the latter half of 2021, most young people closed their PUP claims and returned to work, with the CSO estimating that there were approximately 321,000 young people in employment by Q3 2021 – significantly more than before the pandemic. This recovery resulted in a sharp downward trend in youth unemployment rates, with the standard youth unemployment rate falling to a low of 9 percent, and the ‘COVID-19 adjusted’ measure to 10.2 percent, by end-November 2021.
While a slight increase was observed in the ‘COVID-19 adjusted’ measure of youth unemployment following the temporary reintroduction of public health restrictions in early December, I am confident that the vast majority of these young people will shortly return to work, following the widescale easing of restrictions.
While it is welcome that the youth unemployment rate has reduced and returned to pre-pandemic levels, it is critical to continue to minimise potential scarring effects amongst young people who permanently lost their jobs during the pandemic and young people who face difficulties or higher barriers to entry.
Accordingly, my Department has introduced – with funding allocated in Budget 2022 – a series of targeted employment supports under Pathways to Work 2021-2025 , the Government’s employment services strategy. These include:
- 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.
- Launching the Work Placement Experience Programme (WPEP), which is a 6-month, 30 hour per week voluntary work experience programme, for persons out of work for six months or more. While the programme has no age limit, it should be particularly attractive to young people looking to gain valuable work experience. 4,000 places on the programme have been ring-fenced for young people.
- Ring-fencing at least 1,000 out of the 3,000 additional Community Employment and Tús places for long-term unemployed young people.
My Department also works closely with the Further Education and Training sector to provide access to training, upskilling and reskilling opportunities. These are likely to be of particular relevance to young people seeking to enter the labour market for the first time. As part of Budget 2022 and Pathways to Work 2021-2025, the Department of Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science are providing an additional 50,000 further education and training places to help more people, including young persons, to have the opportunity to upskill or reskill for employment into a new sector.
I trust this clarifies the matter for the Deputy.
