Job schemes for the young have taken the first big hit in George Osborne's deficit reduction cuts. It's dogma over common sense
The latest data release on the labour market from the Office of National Statistics showed that there were 926,000 young people under the age of 25 who were unemployed, giving an unemployment rate of 19.6%.
And we know that the number of applications for university are up by more than 100,000, or by 23%, this year, and that this new government has halved the number of places available. There are only 10,000 extra: the dole beckons.
But the latest news is worse. Job schemes for the young have taken the first big hit in George Osborne's deficit reduction cuts. This is dogma over common sense. These are the last thing that a government should cut in the depths of a recession. The young are among the most vulnerable to a recession – unemployment while you are young scars you later.
So this government is going to cut the Future Jobs Fund, an extension of the Young Person's Guarantee to 2011-12 and the two year Jobseekers' guarantee – all programmes to help guarantee work or training for longer-term unemployed people in the recession: saving £995m.
So youth unemployment is going to rise probably by at least a quarter of a million by this time next year.
It is quite clear the vulnerable are going to pay for this government's incompetence. Nick Clegg and his lot have sold their souls for power, and this is not what they stood for at the election.
If the young are first, I fully expect the disabled, the old and the weak to be the next target.
And there is no evidence that any of this will improve economic performance.
These are your kids and grandkids. Stand up and say no.