News from Sheffield Labour

The Government is failing this generation. We need a jobs plan

Paul Blomfield, Member of Parliament for Sheffield Central, has called on the Government to urgently put in place a jobs plan in order to tackle rising overall unemployment, and particularly rising youth unemployment. Today’s unemployment figures reveal 1 million young people are now out of work. In Sheffield Central constituency the unemployment rate now stands at 8.1%, an increase of 20.4% in the last 12 months.

Paul Blomfield MP said: “One million unemployed young people is a tragedy for those young people out of work, their families and society. The Government is failing this generation. Unemployment in my constituency is up 20% in the last year so we need a jobs plan and we need it fast. My big fear is that without urgent action we’ll have a lost generation even worse than we saw in Sheffield in the 1980s.

“The Government must change their economic course. By cutting too far and too fast they’ve choked our economic recovery, but there is a better way. A £2 billion tax on bank bonuses would fund 100,000 jobs for young people. The Government should also bring forward new investment projects in transport and school building which would create new construction and engineering jobs.

“There should be more focus on youth apprenticeships to train the next generation of skilled workers. While there has been a 900% increase in apprenticeships for the over 60’s, long-term youth unemployment has risen by 83% since January. It demonstrates how Government policies are failing to tackle youth unemployment.”

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