Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 14 July 2020
697. Deputy Gary Gannon asked the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection the position regarding the development of a youth employment strategy in view of the fact that this sector will be greatly affected by Covid-19 and that the unemployment rate in 2019 for those under 35 years of age has still not recovered fully. [15860/20]
Amharc ar fhreagraGovernment 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.
My Department recently published a Working Paper entitled ‘The Initial Impacts of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Ireland’s Labour Market’, which highlights that those who have lost their jobs in the sectors most severely impacted as a result of the pandemic and the associated containment measures are more likely to be younger than the overall population. This disproportionate impact is driven by the high levels of young people in employment in the most affected sectors, namely ‘accommodation and food’ and ‘wholesale and retail trade’.
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.
The Labour Market Advisory Council was convened by my predecessor earlier this year to provide advice to Government on employment and labour market issues. The first task assigned to the Council was to develop, as a matter of urgency, proposals for actions to tackle the labour market challenges arising from the pandemic. This mandate has resulted in the publication of a Policy Paper ‘Preparing for Economic Recovery’ by the Council, which will assist the Government in developing the public policy responses required to support national economic recovery. Among its recommendations, the Council recognise:
- The potential for targeted wage subsidies to ease labour market entrance for young workers in particular.
- The need to enhance and expand existing work placement programmes such as the Youth Employment Support Scheme (YESS) to broader categories of jobseekers, including increasing the eligible age cohort to include those aged 25-29 years.
- The additional value to be gained by linking these programmes to upskilling and reskilling opportunities in enhancing the labour market prospects of young jobseekers.
Targeted policies to assist the labour market prospects and recovery for young jobseekers, will be a strong feature of the July stimulus package and the upcoming Pathways to Work 2020-2025 strategy, with strategy publication expected in Q3 2020.
