The UK\u2019s youth unemployment rate has hit an 11-year high as increased employment taxes in low-skilled sectors and the impact of AI has hit job opportunities for younger workers. <\/p>\n
The Office for National Statistics (ONS) said the jobless rate for workers aged 16-24 rose to 16.2 per cent \u2013 the highest since January 2015 \u2013 in the first quarter of the year. <\/p>\n
This represents 729,000 young people who have been actively seeking work within the last four weeks and are available to start work within the next two weeks.<\/p>\n
The broader unemployment rate also rose unexpectedly to an average of 4.9 per cent to 5 per cent in the first quarter, defying expectations of no change and down to a monthly spike to 5.5 per cent in March. <\/p>\n
First-time workers and graduates have suffered a narrowing in job opportunities after the rise in employers\u2019 national insurance contributions raised the costs of hiring cheaper workers last year. Some companies have said they are pausing graduate hiring schemes as they roll out artificial intelligence tools. <\/p>\n
The ONS said lower-paid sectors such as hospitality and retail, which traditionally hired younger workers, \u201chave seen some of the largest falls in vacancies and payroll numbers, both in recent months and over the last year\u201d. The number of young people who have been long-term unemployment \u2013 measured as up to two years \u2013 from 203,000 to 219,000. <\/p>\n
Pat McFadden, the work and pensions secretary, said: \u201cBoosting opportunity and tackling youth unemployment in every area remains our priority, and through our jobs guarantee, we are helping young people into work, while engaging employers to ensure they have the skilled workforce that they need.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Total monthly payrolls contracted by 100,000 in April, worse than estimates of about 2,000, and came after falls of 28,000 in March and 13,000 in February. The ONS said the number of job vacancies, which hit a record high during the pandemic, fell to the lowest level in five years at 705,000. This was down from a peak of 1.3 million in July 2022. <\/p>\n
\u201cThe collapse in the number of people on payrolls in April is the first sign that the energy shock is weighing on employment. It seems inevitable that the unemployment rate will resume its upward trend in the months ahead,\u201d Thomas Pugh, chief economist at RSM, a professional services firm, said. <\/p>\n
The figures underline the weakness in the UK\u2019s job market, which has cooled under the pressure of high interest rates and a slowing economy over the past two years. The Bank of England<\/a> expects the unemployment rate to peak at 5.1 per cent<\/a> in the second quarter, and has warned it may need to raise interest rates to quell the threat of energy-induced inflation this year. The bank rate stands at 3.75 per cent. <\/p>\n The slowing jobs market has pushed down the growth of average weekly earnings, which excluding bonuses, rose by 3.4 per cent between January and March, down from 3.6 per cent. It meant wage growth was running close to the\u00a0rate of inflation of 3.3 per cent<\/a> over the first three months of the year. When including bonuses, average wages rose by 4.1 per cent from 3.9 per cent in the previous three-month rolling period.<\/p>\n Prices have accelerated on the back of rising global oil prices since the closure of the Strait of Hormuz<\/a>, through which a fifth of the world\u2019s oil and gas supply passes. But official figures released on Wednesday are expected to show a dip in annual inflation to 3 per cent in April<\/a> when government measures to reduce household energy bills came into force.<\/p>\n Companies have said they are sitting on their hiring and investment plans as they wait for a resolution to the US-Iran war, which is now in its 11th week. Global oil prices have jumped from an average of $65 a barrel to peaking at $126 last month. Current futures prices for Brent crude, the global benchmark, are at $91 a barrel.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The UK\u2019s youth unemployment rate has hit an 11-year high as increased employment taxes in low-skilled sectors and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":435079,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[138,219,111,139,69],"class_list":["post-435078","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-economy","tag-business","tag-economy","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/435078","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=435078"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/435078\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/435079"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=435078"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=435078"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=435078"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}