Link to this page: http://www.socialistparty.org.uk/issue/684/12727
From The Socialist newspaper, 7 September 2011
NEET figures still rising
Jaime Davies
The number of NEET (Not in Employment, Education or Training) youth in the UK has risen to 18.4%. One year ago NEET figures were at 16.3%. It is no coincidence that the figure has risen sharply and steeply under the rule of the Con-Dem coalition.
The NEET figures are disgraceful but they come as no surprise due to the savage cuts regime being implemented all over Britain by the Con-Dem government and in Wales by the Labour-led Welsh Assembly. Simply put, there are hardly any jobs out there.
Finding work under these conditions is particularly hard on young people as employers are more likely to fill limited places with older, more experienced workers.
A lot of young people cannot afford university tuition fees and so will miss out on an education. Even young people wanting to go to college or sixth form who rely on EMA will suffer since it's been scrapped.
A striking example of just how bad the situation for young people looking for a job is would be the town of Merthyr Tydfil in South Wales. Youth Fight for Jobs recently took action after Tory MP Iain Duncan Smith implied that the working class people of Merthyr were too lazy to get on a bus to Cardiff and find a job, in light of the staggering 84 JSA claimants to every one vacancy in the town.
Youth Fight for Jobs marched 26 miles over three days from Merthyr to Cardiff, to show Duncan Smith that unemployed people aren't too 'lazy' to get a job. In Cardiff, with local people alone there are nine claimants to one job vacancy!
In order to change this drastic situation for the better what we need and deserve is a real alternative to the cuts - and to replace the current capitalist system! The only future for my generation is a socialist future - a future that caters to the needs of the millions and not the millionaires!
It is important that we all support and campaign for the upcoming Jarrow to London march for jobs and put pressure on this weak coalition government.
Let them know that the youth have a voice and are willing to take organised action against their attacks on our living standards and futures.
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In The Socialist 7 September 2011:
Action to defeat the cuts!
Strike together to defend pensions
Mobilise the power of the working class
The Socialist editorial
Mass workers' movement - the only way to make the super-rich pay
Socialist Party news and analysis
Tory bribes to promote socially divisive 'Free Schools' agenda
Reject health bill attacks on abortion
The riots, Clarke and the "broken penal system"
New pamphlet - The Rise and Fall of the Scottish Socialist Party
Socialist Party feature
Consequences of 9/11: a world turned upside down
Socialist Party reports and campaigns
Bristol marches against home care sell-off
EDL kept out of Tower Hamlets by thousands protesting
Socialist Party workplace news
Scotland - Unison calls for pensions strike
Picket lines at police stations
Socialist Party youth and students
One in a million...fighting back!
Socialist Party review
International socialist news and analysis
Libya after Gaddafi - Independent workers' action needed
Indian high commission protest over Tamil death sentences
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