Youth Unemployment (Hansard, 2 April 1985)

§ 1. Mr. Roy Hughes
asked the Secretary of State for Employment what is the level of youth unemployment at the latest available date.

§ The Minister of State, Department of Employment (Mr. Peter Morrison)
On 10 January 1985, 197,678 claimants under 18 years of age were unemployed in the United Kingdom.

§ Mr. Hughes
Are those not alarming figures? It is all very well to talk about training, but training for what? Will the Minister bear in mind that in careers offices throughout Wales there are only 200 notified vacancies? In this International Year of Youth, does he not feel that youngsters deserve a better deal?

§ Mr. Morrison
I am sure that the hon. Gentleman agrees with the document that the Labour party has produced today, especially the passage that states: For young people, Labour's aim is a high quality two-year programme of education and training. The Youth Training Scheme must be recast to meet the needs of all 16 and 17-year-olds". That is precisely what my right hon. Friends the Secretary of State and the Chancellor of the Exchequer have announced. It is nice to have the Labour party following us.

§ Mr. Powley
Does my hon. Friend agree that as well as the introduction of measures by the Department of Employment for the employment of youth, there is a need for him to liaise with the Department of Education and Science to ensure that school leavers are properly equipped with all the necessary skills to enable them to take their place in employment?

§ Mr. Morrison
I agree with my hon. Friend. That is why we have taken the initiative of introducing a pilot scheme of vocational education. It is sad that many Labour-controlled education authorities are not willing to participate in the scheme. They do not see the need to bridge the gap between education and work.

§ Mr. Fatchett
The Government regularly claim that low wages will provide the answer to youth unemployment. If so, why is the lowest rate of unemployment in the south-east, the region which has the highest wage levels?

§ Mr. Morrison
Presumably the hon. Gentleman is aware of the agreement between the Electrical, Electronic, Telecommunication and Plumbing Union and the employers, which resulted in a significant reduction in the level of apprentices' wages. As a result, the number of apprentices trebled. Surely that speaks for itself.

§ Mr. Andrew MacKay
Will my hon. Friend tell the House what response he has had so far from employers to the excellent extension of the youth training scheme to two years? Will he also confirm that in future the scheme will be biased more towards securing jobs at the end of the day?

§ Mr. Morrison
The employers' response so far has been encouraging, as was demonstrated by what the CBI had to say after my right hon. Friend's announcement. I am sure that all employers realise that to invest in a two-year training scheme is in their interests as much as it is in the interests of the trainees.

§ Mr. Sheerman
In the light of those dreadful figures for youth unemployment, surely the Minister must join his right hon. Friend the Member for Old Bexley and Sidcup (Mr. Heath), who seems to know that the Government are pursuing a Luddite theory in linking low wages with youth employment. My hon. Friend the Member for Leeds, South (Mr. Fatchett) has observed that youth unemployment is lowest in the south-east, where wages are higher than elsewhere. When will the Minister give up theories that fly in the face of common sense, sound economics and the lessons of history and start to do something to create real jobs for young people?

§ Mr. Morrison
It seems that the hon. Gentleman was not listening to his right hon. Friend the Leader of the Opposition when he was speaking this morning. The right hon. Gentleman, when launching the Labour party's new document, said that there was no easy answer to these problems. The Government's answer is a soundly based economy that will win back jobs on a competitive basis.