Chancellor’s Budget must address labour market participation across all age groups, CIPD warns
Ahead of the Chancellor’s Budget, the CIPD calls on government to develop a broad strategy to boost labour supply
Ahead of the Chancellor’s Budget, the CIPD calls on government to develop a broad strategy to boost labour supply
The CIPD is calling for a broad strategy to boost labour market participation across all age groups, not just the over-50s, which the UK government’s review of inactivity has primarily focused on to date. This comes as new CIPD analysis shows almost one million young people have been lost from the labour market over the last 30 years, highlighting the need for the government to take steps to boost participation across all age groups.
CIPD’s analysis found that:
In response to these challenges, the CIPD, the professional body for HR and people development, recommends that a strategy to boost labour market participation should have three key elements:
Boosting skills and training to help younger people into work by:
Supporting workers’ health and wellbeing by:
Promoting and supporting the creation of more flexible, good quality jobs by:
Jon Boys, senior labour market economist for the CIPD, said:
“There are multiple challenges currently facing the UK labour market, including our ageing population, the impact of technology on jobs, and changes to immigration rules and patterns. These are only going to become more acute, so it's critical that the government develops a clear strategy to boost labour market participation and reduce inactivity across all age groups. This will require changes to policy on skills, occupational health access and support and a renewed focus on creating more flexible, high-quality and productive jobs across the economy.
“As our analysis shows, it’s important that the current focus on addressing the decline of over-50s in employment doesn’t obscure the need and opportunity to get more young people into work. While the extension of higher education opportunities has had significant benefits, the evidence suggests there’s also a need for better vocational routes into employment to provide a viable alternative to the degree route.”
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