Phil Boswell – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Phil Boswell on 2015-10-30.

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment he has made of the implications for his policies of the finding of the Equality and Human Rights Commission in its report, Is Britain Fairer, published in October 2015, that the employment gap between the oldest and youngest age groups has increased.

Priti Patel

The employment rate of young people who have left full-time education is 73.9% – its highest level in more than a decade and above the UK working age average. The rate for young people not in full-time education is the highest for over ten years

Over time participation in education has grown, and the majority of young people in full-time education are outside the labour force. The proportion of all young people who have left full-time education and are unemployed is 6.2% – below where it was before the recession and close to the lowest on record. The UK performs well internationally, with the fourth highest youth employment rate in the European Union.

The employment rate for young people fell during the recession and, as a result, unemployment rose. The EHRC report did not take full account of the recovery in the labour market, including the youth labour market that has since taken place.