Press Release: Youth unemployment hits 20%

Youth Fight for Jobs picket Dept. of Employment against rising youth unemployment

Young people picketed the Department for Employment and Learning in Belfast on Wednesday 11th November at 4.30pm to protest against youth unemployment in Northern Ireland officially reaching 20%.

Youth Fight for Jobs was established to campaign for the creation of decent jobs for young people and has the official backing of several trade unions such as the Communication Workers Unions, RMT, PCS and the former Visteon workers.

Spokesperson for Youth Fight for Jobs, Alex Hussein explained

“Young people in particular are paying the price for the bail out of the banks. Officially youth unemployment is now 20%, but when you include those who are classified as economically inactive the true figure is actually much greater. Young people won’t accept a life on the dole.

“The Assembly Executive promised to create an extra 6,500 decent jobs, but unemployment is soaring. Our campaign aims to organise young people to fight for a future and we won’t accept lame excuses from double and triple jobbing politicians for their broken promises.

“We delivered a letter to the Minister for Employment Reg Empey demanding that the Assembly Executive takes emergency action to create decent jobs for young people. If the Assembly fails to deliver for young people, we will escalate our campaign and make sure the politicians cannot ignore us.”

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