Jennifer Carroll MacNeill (Dún Laoghaire, Fine Gael)
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554. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection the plans in place to ensure the high numbers of youth unemployment are reduced as Ireland comes out of the Covid-19 pandemic; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [1770/21]

Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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As the Deputy will be aware, and based on experience from past recessions, youth employment tends to be disproportionately impacted by any labour market shock.  This is because many employers operate a "last in-first out" protocol when reducing their labour force and also because young people tend to work in occupations and sectors such as retail and hospitality, for example, that are most immediately affected by economic downturns.  The impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on youth unemployment has been no different in this regard.

Youth unemployment stood at just over 10% in Q1 2020 based on the Labour Force Survey data, with approximately 20,000 persons aged under 25 on the Live Register.  By Q3 2020 these figures had increased to 20% and 25,000 respectively.  If PUP recipients at the end of December are included, just under 45% of young people in the labour force were unemployed at that stage.

It is important to note that the Government extended access to PUP to students who worked part-time.  Of those under 25s in receipt of PUP, almost one quarter have self-certified as students. Using internationally recognised standards set by the International Labour Organisation, these students would not normally be considered, or counted, as unemployed.

While the employment of young people is significantly affected by the pandemic, we also know from past recessions that youth unemployment levels typically fall quite quickly once economic activity resumes.  In addition, the jobs of many persons currently on PUP will not be permanently lost due to the pandemic. Many will return to previous employment once restrictions ease, as they did during previous easing of restrictions during 2020. 

However, others will require assistance and support to return to employment, reskill and to find new jobs.  My Department is supporting initiatives to assist  people, including young people, get back to work, once COVID restrictions and their impact on the economy and labour market begin to ease. Under the July Jobs Stimulus, my Department, along with the Department of Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science, are putting in place the following measures:

- Expanding the caseload capacity of Intreo Centres during Q1 2021 with the assignment of 100 job coaches to provide enhanced employment services and supports. Case officer support to help people with job search advice and assistance is shown to be the most effective means of helping people move into employment. 

- Extending the current contracts of existing contracted public employment service providers into 2021. In particular, the Local Employment Service is being extended into four new areas and the capacity of the service increased by 50%. 

- Expanding the benefit of the JobsPlus recruitment subsidy to employers who hire young people.  Under this scheme an employer receives the JobsPlus subsidy of €7,500 once they employ a young person (under 30 years of age) who has been unemployed for just 4 months. A higher subsidy of €10,000 is paid for recruitment of a person who was long term unemployed (over 12 months).  This will help make it more attractive to recruit young people who face difficulties in securing a footing in employment. 

- Providing access to additional full-time and part-time education, including targeted short-term courses, with over 35,000 new education and training places for those currently unemployed.

- Providing incentives to employers to take on more apprentices, with the provision of a grant of €3,000 to employers for each new apprentice recruited until June 2021.

- Facilitating access to the Back to Education Allowance and Back to Work Enterprise Allowance to those displaced by the pandemic by waiving the usual qualifying period of 3-9 months. My Department will actively promote this scheme to suitable candidates and although it is not budget capped, additional provision has been made in Budget 2021 of €3.5million – equivalent to an extra 700 places.

Furthermore, building on the success of the Youth Employment Support Scheme (YESS), my Department is at an advanced stage in developing a new work placement experience programme for those out of work for at least six months. This programme will seek to encourage businesses  provide jobseekers with the necessary workplace skills to compete in the labour market and to help break the vicious circle of “no job without experience, no experience without a job”.  There is a target of over 10,000 persons, regardless of age, to be placed on this six-month scheme by end of this year. I expect to launch the Programme  as soon as public health restrictions allow in 2021.

Work is also at an advanced stage by my Department to develop Pathways to Work, the national employment services strategy for the period 2021-2025. The strategy will seek to build upon those support measures outlined above as we assist young people on their journey to work.  Publication is expected in early 2021, following the launch of the Government's National Economic Plan.

In developing these programmes and services the Department is working closely with, and being advised by, the Labour Market Advisory Council which is composed of leading market experts, representatives of industry and workers and representatives of unemployed people.  We will keep these programmes under review and report progress on a regular basis.