Hundreds of young east Londoners join dole queue despite overall drop in unemployment

pic: Steve

Youth unemployment is rising in east London despite a drop in total unemployment figures  in East London Line boroughs.

Hackney, Lewisham and Tower Hamlets have all recorded a drop in Jobseekers’ Allowance claimants in the last three months. Croydon was the only borough to see an increase.

Tower Hamlets saw the largest decrease in claimants. Numbers shrank by nearly one per cent from 11, 486 to 10,375, while Croydon saw a rise of over six per cent from 10,147 to 10,802.

The figures do not include people who are unemployed but show those on JSA only.

source: ONS/nomisweb.co.uk

However Wednesday’s ONS figures show the number of 18 to 24 year olds seeking employment in east London has increased by nearly 21 per cent.

Across the country, youth unemployment broke last quarter’s record and increased to 1.027m. The record was only beaten last month.

In Tower Hamlets the total of unemployed young people is over 22 per cent. A BBC London-commissioned study this week named Tower Hamlets as the borough with the highest number of young JSA claimants.

The Centre for Economic and Social Inclusion (CESI) study found 3,430 young people, ten per cent of the borough’s young population, is unemployed. Croydon came second with 2,935 young claimants, having doubled since 2008.

In London overall the number of 18 to 24 year olds out of work is over 57,000, and over 8,500 come from the east London area.

Reacting to the increase in youth unemployment, John Biggs, City and East London Assembly Member said: “These figures show that the economic policies of this Government and Mayor are a failure. They both need to go back to the drawing board and create a plan for growth and jobs.

“A generation of our children will be growing up without ever having a full time job. The Mayor and Government have cut spending too far and too fast. They need to increase spending to support jobs and growth.”

The release of figures comes after EastLondonLines reported last month that east London’s jobless figures are higher than the London average.

UK unemployment now stands at 2.64m, up by 0.4 per cent to 8.3 per cent from the previous quarter.

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