Young Workers Month

Why we need YWM

Read Why We Need  TUC Young Workers’ Month blog 

Low pay/ high unemployment

• three quarters of a million 16-24 year olds are unemployed
• Young people are the only age group where long-term unemployment rose in the latest figures
• Government plans are set to withdraw benefits from young people unemployed over 6 months, leaving them with no alternative to workfare.
• Research by the Resolution Foundation found that almost three in 10 (29%) of those aged 21 to 30 are now low paid – equating to almost 1.5 million young workers

Insecure work

• 31% of all temporary workers are aged under 25
• 38% of all those employed on zero hour contracts are aged under 30
• 34% of all agency workers aged under 30

Housing

• Record number of young people living at home with parents- one in four young adults are now living at home with their parents into their thirties
• 3 million 20- to 34-year-olds lived with their parents in 2013, according to theOffice for National Statistics, the highest number since it started keeping records in 1996.
• The average age of a first-time house buyer has risen to 35

Voice

• In the 2010 general Election barely more than four in ten people in the 18 to 24 year-old age group voted.
• According to research by Electoral Reform Society almost 1 million 18-21 year olds are missing from the electoral register
• just 7 per cent of young workers aged between 16-24 are members of a trade union.