A Shaky Start in a Harsh Labour Market

A Shaky Start in a Harsh Labour Market Richard Exell “The Gender Jobs Split”, Congress House, 1 November

Five Headlines from the Report • Young people overwhelmingly work in the private sector, but haven’t benefitted from the growth of private sector jobs. • Underemployment is especially bad for young men, but young women in a worse position relative to older workers. • Young people are more likely than they were 20 years ago to be stuck in low-skill jobs. • Apprenticeships are still the exception, not the rule and are very gender stereotypical. • Gender segregation for young people is worse now than it was 20 years ago.

Caring and Paid Work Men Women 2007 2011 Employed 74 68 67 63 Unemployed 15 21 10 14 Inactive 11 11 23 23 Looking after family/home 0 1 13 14 Not seeking employment & don’t want it 7 8 16 16 Of which:

Some Policy Proposals • A job guarantee for young people – we are far too complacent about the failure of the Youth Contract • A youth allowance that promotes work and training • Delivered by a new youth employment and skills service • A youth labour market strategy that takes gender segmentation and gender stereotypes seriously • Young women will benefit from measures usually thought of as being more important for a somewhat older age group • i. e. childcare and eldercare for work, education and training • We still don’t have anything like enough apprenticeship places