Employment: New Jobs

Debate between Earl of Courtown and Lord Freud

Monday 27th January 2014 Lords Chamber

[The Earl of Courtown]

To ask Her Majesty’s Government how many new jobs have been created in the private sector for each job lost in the public sector since 2010.

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department for Work and Pensions (Lord Freud)]

My Lords, figures released last week show that since 2010 the number of people in work has increased by 1.3 million, bringing total employment to a new record high of 30.15 million. The latest private and public sector employment figures, which were released last month, show that since 2010 the rise in private sector employment is more than three times the fall in public sector employment: the number of public sector jobs has fallen by 451,000, while nearly 1.7 million jobs were created in the private sector.

[The Earl of Courtown (Con)]

My Lords, I thank my noble friend for that good news. Is he aware how noble Lords on all sides of the House consider the importance of youth unemployment? Will my noble friend explain to the House what further actions Her Majesty’s Government are taking to reduce those figures further?

[Lord Freud]

Youth unemployment is clearly a critical part of our strategy. I am pleased to be able to say that the number of youth claimants for JSA went down this year—by 105,000—to 315,000, which is an enormous percentage change but it has been going down now for 19 consecutive months. Long-term youth unemployment has also been going down at a very sharp rate, and the number of young NEETs is the lowest for a decade. We have been pumping up the number of apprenticeships, with 1.5 million places created; work experience is vital—there are 113,000 places. The sector-based work academies are all pushing youngsters into the employment market. As noble Lords know, the key measure I always use is that we manage to make a turnaround in the number of youngsters out of work and out of education, which rose through the boom years of the previous Government. We have now turned that round.