Minimum wage rise has made it difficult for employers to hire young people, says Alan Milburn – UK politics live

Government-commissioned report on young people not in employment, education or training to be published by review chair Milburn today Young people in the UK: how has the search for work been for you? Pat McFadden , the work and pensisons secretary, issued this statement overnight about the Milburn report into youth unemployment. I commissioned this report because we cannot afford to lose a generation of young people, and I welcome Alan Milburn’s vital work which lays bare the scale of the challenge and the root causes of youth unemployment we now need to confront. We are already taking action by bringing forward the biggest youth employment reforms in a generation to create 500,000 opportunities for young people, including a youth jobs grant for businesses starting next month, more apprenticeships, and subsidised employment to help young people get a foot on the ladder. This is an anxious generation for a whole variety of reasons, it’s a world of uncertainty, opportunities are lower, in the way they’re described. They’re living in the digital age. I’ve had a small team going around the country talking to these young people, these NEET young people and they do this exercise where they ask them what time did you go to sleep last night? We’ve really got to look at that. The government is looking at that. If the government hasn’t pronounced on it by the time I come to report in the autumn, I definitely will. Very interesting to hear Alan Milburn on social media ban - ‘the evidence points in one direction’ And he says of Keir Starmer - “I know this is an issue he is really bothered about. The question is not are you bothered, are you going to do something about it?’ Continue reading...