The number of young people who are not education or training (NEET) is likely to rise to more than one million by the end of the summer, according to a new report published today.The report, ‘Hidden talents: re-engaging young people’, by the Local Government Association (LGA), working with the Centre for Social Justice, describes the disproportionate effect that the recession has had on young people, who have been hit particularly hard by the recent increases in unemployment.

The LGA says the system for encouraging young people into jobs and training is disjointed and doesn’t focus enough on the needs of the individual. The policy framework must be also be much more coherent if the needs of the nation’s youth are to be met.

Council leaders are calling for urgent short term action to prevent the number of (NEETs) rising throughout the recession. In the longer term, much earlier intervention is needed to prevent even more people facing long term unemployment in the coming decades.

The report shows that:

• The number of young people who are NEET has risen from 743,000 in 2005 to 935,000 today and is expected to top one million by September.
• The number of young people who are NEET has risen by 72,000 between the last quarter in 2008 and the first quarter in 2009
• Young people between 18 and 24 have seen the biggestpercentage increase in unemployment rates in recent months, rising by just under 4% to 16.1%.

The report discusses possible improvements to the public sector’s approach, including:

• Much earlier intervention to identify young people who are at risk of dropping out and becoming NEETs.
• Councils being allowed to fund employment or training projects for young people against projected future benefit savings
• The unhelpful distinction between 16-18 year olds and 19-24 year olds be dropped to bring about a more coherent way of dealing with NEETs

Cllr Margaret Eaton, Chairman of the LGA, said:

“It is deeply worrying that the nation seems set on a course to have a million young people not in any form of education or work. That’s a million young people stuck in a rut, not able to get on and do something productive with their lives and not contributing to the economy. Too many promising young people, with their whole lives ahead of them, are at risk of falling through the cracks.

“Young people have been hit particularly hard by the recession. They have difficulty getting their foot on the career ladder at a time when companies aren’t recruiting and they can be the first to go when cuts are made. We are facing a long term problem that is being made even worse by the recession.

“The billion pounds set aside in the Budget to create jobs for young people will help, but it won’t be enough to solve the problem by a long shot. The system for encouraging young people into work is confusing, incoherent and disjointed.

“A mish mash of government departments, national agencies, voluntary organisations and local authorities all working to different targets and agendas muddy the water and prevent a coherent approach to dealing with the issue.

“In the short term, councils should be freed up to run job and training programmes funded on the basis of future savings from benefits once young people are contributing to the economy. In the longer term, we need a much simpler system that intervenes much earlier to spot children at risk of dropping out of the system. If we are to stop this problem continuing in the decades that come, a much more far-sighted approach needs to be taken today.”