Unemployment: Young People

Lord Peston Excerpts

Wednesday 16th November 2011 Lords Chamber

Asked By

[Lord Peston]

To ask Her Majesty’s Government when they expect the level of youth unemployment to begin to fall.

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

The most recent forecast from the independent Office for Budget Responsibility is for unemployment to level out and then fall from the second half of 2012. There is no separate forecast for youth unemployment, but this would be expected to follow a broadly similar trend.

[Lord Peston]

Am I to understand, when thanking the Minister for that Answer, that the Treasury does not look specifically at youth unemployment when considering its policies? Is it the case that no Minister in the Treasury, no official and none of its excellent economists or statisticians has a view on when the rate of increase in unemployment, especially for young people, will become a rate of decrease?

[Lord Freud]

Well, my Lords, the forecasts have now gone to the Office for Budget Responsibility and are the basis for planning. Clearly, the forecast that I have just given noble Lords is somewhat out of date and we are looking to have another later this month. Clearly, the implication of what the Governor of the Bank of England has just said is that growth will, on his forecast, run at 1 per cent this year and next, and this will be built into those kinds of forecasts.