STUC youth committee on youth unemployment

June 22nd 2020

STUC youth committee on youth unemployment

June 22nd 2020

The STUC Youth Committee has been informed that as many as a third of young people will be jobless by Christmas following an IPPR report that found that young people in Scotland are facing ‘one of the hardest labour markets Scotland has ever seen’.

On average, young workers are two and a half times more likely to be working in industries affected by the COVID 19 crisis.

Along with affected industries, young workers are four times more likely to be in precarious working and zero-hour contracts which makes them easier targets when it comes to businesses letting workers go.

Chair of the STUC Youth Committee, Maria Feeney said: “For too long the economy has relied on the exploitation of workers on insecure and low paid contracts. The COVID crisis has highlighted the failures of a hyper-charged capitalist economy which exploits workers for mass profit, consequently, leaving workers in dire straits while bosses’ greed soaks up the fruit of their worker’s labour. “Workers deserve stability through permanent contracts and worker’s rights from day one of employment in order to combat any exploitation.”

Rozanne Foyer, STUC General Secretary Designate said:

"Scotland's labour market was already too reliant on unsteady businesses and unstable work. Now we see the consequences of an economy built on sand. Young workers have the fight of a generation to win guarantees of jobs from government and unions stand ready to support that fight.

“We are enormously concerned at reports of massive potential drops in apprenticeships in areas such as construction. Government has to act now to boost demand.

“Following the great recession of 2008, the Government brought forward a Future Jobs Fund targeted at supporting employment. We are calling for a new scheme, targeted particularly, though not exclusively, at young people and focused on the jobs we need to deliver a just transition to a low carbon economy.”

The STUC Youth Committee calls on the Trade Union movement to continue their campaigns for an end to zero-hour contracts and age wage disparities and for the Scottish Government to stand up and take serious notice.

The Committee also welcomes the STUC’s calls for a new scheme to that focuses on jobs through a just transition.