How exactly are British young people affected by the current economic crisis and job cuts?

Résumé du document

The topic I am going to deal with today is that of Youth Unemployment. It is a known fact that in times of recession, young people are even more badly affected than the rest of the population by job cuts. The first article, "UK youth unemployment rises above European average", is from People Management, a British business and human resources magazine, and dates back to early 2009. It refers to youth unemployment rates in the UK as compared to those of other European countries. The second article also discusses youth unemployment rates in the UK but is more analytical and tries to pinpoint the reasons behind the UK's specific situation. It was published on July 16th 2009 in "The Economist", a well-known business magazine. As in any article from this paper, the author is not specified. The third article comes from The Guardian, which is a liberal British paper. It is fairly recent (September 3rd) and is entitled "Brown faces scrutiny on plans for young jobless". It was written by Patrick Wintour and Kathryn Hopkins.

Extraits

[...] Equally embarrassing is the fact that so many young British people have little or no qualifications, despite Tony Blair's famous “Three Es : education, education, education”. This vision is typical of a business-oriented magazine like Economist” and of a business sector which has suffered tremendously in the credit crunch, especially in London's City. The sector feels let down by Labour. Economist's point of view illustrates the disillusion many British people feel with Labour years ago Tony Blair was triumphantly elected Prime Minister ; a couple of good years followed, but now that the situation is bad the British are keen to find a culprit. [...]

[...] Youth unemployment exemplifies the grievances many British people have against Brown and Labour. It feels highly unlikely Labour could win the next General Election next year. It will thus be the Tories' turn to run the country. The economy may be a little better by then, but it will not be an easy situation. Will the Tories really be able to do better than Labour, especially on the issue of Youth Unemployment? [...]

[...] The article states that jobless rate is now the highest since the end of months before Labour won power”. A graph provided next to the article makes it obvious that unemployment rates were at the lowest between 2000 and 2005, and are now soaring. So, according to the journalist, everything was fine until 2000 and then things started to deteriorate. This mirrors the impression in the first article that old recipes are not working in today's context. The journalist dismisses the traditional explanation of the lack of experience to explain the current bad youth unemployment rates. [...]

[...] These three articles all agree on one point : British youths have paid a high tribute to the recession. People Management and The Economist are representative of the business world and of a large part of the country, who hold Labour and Brown in particular responsible for the current state of affairs. On the other hand, a left-wing newspaper like The Guardian is more receptive to Brown's actions. But even The Guardian cannot help being a little sceptical about it. [...]

[...] As in any article from this paper, the author is not specified. The third article comes from The Guardian, which is a liberal British paper. It is fairly recent (September 3rd) and is entitled “Brown faces scrutiny on plans for young jobless”. It was written by Patrick Wintour and Kathryn Hopkins. This first article gives simple raw data about UK youth unemployment rate, which in October 2008 was compared to the Euro area average of The conclusion is thus a simple one: British youths are more badly affected than youths in other European countries. [...]