Davos - Youth Unemployment at 51.4% in Spain

Just read that in the Guardian and am flabbergasted.  How did the world come to this? It's not young peoples fault that European economies are in freefall but they are certainly one of the main groups getting the worst of things.

In the UK youth unemployment is at 22% so we still have a way to go to be in the car crash state that is Spain but we all have a duty to act now or we will face so much turmoil and unrest later on that taking no action is not an option.

The World Economic Forum, Davos

The summit of EU leaders took place last week and youth unemployment and how to address it was a hot topic.  On the one hand they are calling for restraint and austerity measures to curb the excessive spending of yesterday and on the other they want to pump money into schemes to rescue our lost generation of youth.  Both these measures are at odds with each other.  Austerity cuts ultimately lead to less jobs and  the private sector is so jittery across Europe that no one will be filling the void where public sector jobs had once existed. We are stuck in a viscous downward spiral - new thinking will be required to stop the young losing faith in life and humanity. 

What Would I Do? 

I'd stop the rot and get proper schemes in place to arm young people with the right skills:

• Work with them to get proper communication skills
• Work with them to learn how to find jobs - they are there but you must search hard
• Work with to understand how to write a captivating CV
• Work with them so that they are kept busy and maintain their spirits and motivation.  It's all too easy to get despondent and depressed when you have nothing to do most days.
• Work with them if the above isn't working to come up with ideas and set up their own businesses. 

The Economic Storm Clouds Are Gathering

So unemployment is up. Stock markets are still continuing to freefall and the economy overall is flat lining.  It really is not good news for the UK. Our confidence is at such a low ebb that it is quite frankly scary.

Reading the various unemployment reports on the BBC, it's woman and young people that are making up the brunt of the rises.   Government cuts are necessary but services that are designed to help people get back into work, support them to set up on their own and help to guide young people along the right career path are too essential to cut.

Regular readers of this blog know that I am not the biggest supporter of the job centre as it is merely a box ticking exercise designed to make people jump through hoops for just shy of £60 a week.  I'm not that disillusioned to think that all those out of work actually want to get back into work but for those that will proper support is a must.  The types of things that would work would be:

• How to write a killer CV
• How to look for a job (online and using your own networks)
• Who are you - looking at your skills, strengths and where you wanna be - always think that this self analysis stuff is so easily overlooked
• Shoe shopping - ok this one is pure vanity as I like a nice pair of shoes but appearance and feeling confident all helps and acts as bodyarmour when you are about embark on the interview 'battle'
• Interview skills and how to prep for them properly

The volatility of the global markets could well plunge us back into recession which would be a scary prospect.  This would result in even more people heading towards the dole queue so the Government needs to make sure that the right support is out there so that people aren't left to fester, become despondent and ultimately unemployable in the longer term.