Getting the UK working: in the media
How UK newpapers responded to the CBI's campaign for tackling youth unemployment
Media coverage of the CBI's Getting the UK Working campaign focused on calls for tax incentives to tackle youth unemployment. The Times reported that one in five 16- to 24-year-olds were out of work, twice the figure for the workforce as a whole, and drew attention to the government's Supporting Youth Employment plan launched six months ago, which has failed to get more young people into work.
The Financial Times repeated the CBI's assesment that the scheme's £150m yearly cost cost would be "affordable within the context of the government's deficit reduction plan". The paper went on report the CBI's calls for a youth national minimum wage freeze, and stronger links between schools and business.
The Daily Telegraph also led with the tax relief, characterising the CBI's proposals as "radical" and "frank". The department for business was quoted as saying in response to the report: "It is vital that we do all we can to help young people without work get back into jobs with good long-term career prospects and this report is a serious contribution to thinking about how to do that."
City AM also repeated the CBI's suggestion that suspending, rather than cancelling, benefits when a claimant took a job would encourage employment. The Yorkshire Post quoted CBI Yorkshire and Humber director Andrew Palmer's warnings that "the best way of getting the UK working is to get the private sector motoring, but the labour market has been wracked by structural problems long before the recession struck that won't be swept away by a return to growth." Meanwhile the Huffington Post quoted Mr Cridland's calls for government, business and schools to work together so "young people are able to shine in the jobs market".
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