A Shaky Start in a Harsh Labour Market Richard Exell “The Gender Jobs Split”, Congress House, 1 November

Five Headlines from the Report Young people overwhelmingly work in the private sector, but haven’t benefitted from the growth of private sector jobs. Underemployment is especially bad for young men, but young women in a worse position relative to older workers. Young people are more likely than they were 20 years ago to be stuck in low-skill jobs. Apprenticeships are still the exception, not the rule and are very gender stereotypical. Gender segregation for young people is worse now than it was 20 years ago.

Caring and Paid Work MenWomen Employed Unemployed Inactive Of which: Looking after family/home Not seeking employment & don’t want it 7816

Some Policy Proposals A job guarantee for young people – we are far too complacent about the failure of the Youth Contract A youth allowance that promotes work and training Delivered by a new youth employment and skills service A youth labour market strategy that takes gender segmentation and gender stereotypes seriously Young women will benefit from measures usually thought of as being more important for a somewhat older age group i.e. childcare and eldercare for work, education and training We still don’t have anything like enough apprenticeship places