Young workers are real victims of recession - GMB

Young workers are the real economic victims of this banker’s recession, says GMB.

In December 2010, in Rochdale 2,105 claimants were aged 18-24 which is 31.9 per cent of the 6,585 claimants.

For the North West region as a whole there were 172,535 claimants of all ages in December 2010.

Of these 51,115 claimants were aged 18-24 which was 29.6 per cent of all claimants. For the UK as a whole there were 1,420,125 claimants of all ages in December 2010. Of these 398,390 claimants were aged 18-24 which was 28.1 per cent of all claimants.

These figures are from a new analysis by GMB of the official unemployed claimant count figures for December 2010 from the Office for National Statistics.

Paul McCarthy, GMB Regional Secretary in the North West Region said: “In the North West there are nearly 52,000 young workers aged 18-24 claiming jobseeker’s allowance. When you add to that number the rest of the young people not in jobs but seeking work the real number is more than double that figure. In the UK as a whole the number of young workers aged under 24 seeking work is nearly a million.

“Young workers are the real economic victims of this banker’s recession. The government is in denial that it is deliberately creating unemployment. This week GMB listed that 25,945 posts are under threat in the North West’s local authorities and these posts are being deleted by vacancies not being filled and by voluntary redundancy.”

350 posts are under threat at Rochdale Borough Council.

Mr McCarthy added: “Bob Neil the local government minister’s response was to accuse the GMB of scaremongering. Mr Neil knows that his government is cutting hundreds of thousands of public sector jobs and he is trying to do it in the dark. Vacancies that are not filled are jobs that are not available to the young workers in the North West who are seeking work. Mr Neil should be the Ministry for Propaganda rather than the local government department.

“GMB is mobilising to get a large contingent of young workers from the North West to the TUC demonstration in London on March 26. GMB is also mobilising to get a high turn out at the local elections in May to send a clear message to the government that it is not possible to deflate your way to growth and a balanced budget.”