NOT much happens in South Shields at nine o’clock on a weekday morning. The high street is mostly empty, with just a handful of commuters at the metro station. The exception is the job centre, bustling with men and women searching for work as forklift drivers, industrial painters and at call-centres. Many have been looking for months, if not years, for paid employment.
Compared with much of continental Europe, Britain is doing quite well. Last year its economy grew faster than that of any other G7 country. Unemployment is 5.6%, next to 10% in France. Although high at 16%, youth unemployment has fallen. The share of youths not in employment, education or training (NEET) is 12%, around the rich-world average. Crime and teenage pregnancies are at record lows.
But in one area Britain still does especially badly. According to the OECD club of mostly rich countries, using data from 2012 and 2013, one in seven British youngsters leaves school early. Those dropouts are also the most likely to be unemployed in the rich world (see chart 1). Britain has the third-highest share of youngsters with poor literacy and numeracy skills, and the fourth-highest...Continue reading
via Brian Rushton, Hiding in plain sight
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