Worried about London’s Youth? An employer perspective on work readiness in London

David MasseyUK Commission for Employment and Skills

1. Brief background on youth unemployment in London

2. Recruitment patterns in London

3. What employers think of their young recruits

4. Structural changes in the labour market for young people

What I’ll go through today

Youth (16-24) Unemployment in London

What about the demand side?

• Lots of attention given to the performance of the education system (i.e. School performance, qualification reform etc)

• Lots of attention given to the characteristics of young unemployed and/or NEET young people.

• Less given to demand for labour and the state of the labour market for young people

The UK Commission’s “Employer Skills Survey”

• Biennial survey of 89,000 employers (establishments) across the UK, took place spring 2011.

• Wealth of topics covered including skills issues (gaps/shortages), recruitment (volume/type of vacancy/ease of filling and work readiness of young recruits

• In London the sample size is around 10,000 employers (establishments).

How many employers recruit from education?

How does London compare to other regions?

Lack of recruitment is partly the “pull” of FE and HE

How well prepared for work are London’s young people?

If they are not well prepared why is this?Proportion of employers who recruit young people that find them poorly or very poorly prepared by reason for low levels of preparedness (base: all employers who have recruited a young person in each respective age cohort)

Experience of work is key to tackling youth unemployment

Summary of employers views of work readiness

• Only a minority of employers recruit young people, in London this is skewed towards graduates

• Employers tend to find their young recruits well or very well prepared for work and this improves with age and time spent in education.

• Where employers are not satisfied this is overwhelmingly down to experience and attitude and not literacy, numeracy or education more generally.

• Experience of work is key therefore but we know that the share of learners who combine work with their studies has been declining for years. In London this may be even more the case and this may be related to the lack of part-time work in London.

Structural Change in the Labour Market

Forecast net growth in employment in London 2010 to 2020 (000s)

Any questions?

• David Massey (david.massey@ukces.org.uk)

• Forthcoming event – 4th July (9:30 to 13:00, central London, for strategic directors and researchers in LEPs, LAs and other local LMI users (localdata.event@ukces.org.uk for more info)

• Further reading: • The Youth Inquiry http://www.ukces.org.uk/ourwork/youth-inquiry

• The Youth Employment Challenge (coming soon)

• The Employer Skills Survey http://www.ukces.org.uk/publications/employer-skills-survey-2011

• UKCES Data site http://nessdata.ukces.org.uk/ness/KMS/News.aspx