SMEs and the Youth Labour Market Report
Known Impact
October 9, 2021
In the context of the current labour market, young people are being disproportionately hit by the economic fallout from the Covid-19 pandemic. Since March 2020 there has been a large increase in unemployment and a large fall in employment among 16-24-year-olds.
Young people are more likely to work in sectors such as Hospitality and Retail, where a high proportion of jobs have been furloughed and were at greater risk of redundancy throughout the pandemic. It is therefore important to understand ways in which employers can engage more in the youth labour market to combat low employment rates and increase overall engagement with young people.
IFF Research was commissioned by Youth Futures Foundation to better understand small and medium (with under 250 employees) employers’ decisions to recruit young people or get involved in providing youth training or placements. The following report aims to explore any barriers to and enablers for employers’ engagement with youth employment programmes; the current landscape for employer engagement in youth employment programmes; how approaches to working with younger employees differ between businesses of different sizes, industries and locations and any changes as a result of Covid-19.
