Strategy to arrest
youth unemployment

The National Minimum Wage for
younger workers should be frozen in absolute terms in 2010 to ensure welcome
government efforts to combat soaring youth unemployment.

The Chartered Institute of Personnel
and Development (CIPD).  The call is
contained in Platform 2010 – A Recovery That Works, the CIPD’s pre-election
‘manifesto for work’.  Other calls
include: Delay fiscal deficit reduction measures, but freeze public sector pay
bill and conduct efficiency review of all quangos, Abandon the increase in
employers’ NICs planned for 2011, Remove the default retirement age and extend
the right to request flexible working to all employees from 2013, Extend the
job guarantee scheme to the long-term unemployed aged over 50, Lead a national
awareness campaign on the importance of good people management skills among
line managers.

The call
for a freeze in the National Minimum Wage for younger workers recognises the
efforts that have already been made by government and employers to tackle youth
unemployment, but also takes into account expectations of a slow and weak
recovery in the labour market.

John
Philpott, CIPD Chief Economic Adviser, says: “We strongly welcome the steps the
Government has taken to avoid the creation of a ‘lost generation’ in the UK.
But freezing the National Minimum Wage for younger workers is necessary to ensure
that all this good work is not fatally undermined just as the economy begins to
recover. Pay restraint is likely to be a feature of the year ahead as employers
and employees continue to work together to minimise job losses.  It is right that you workers
lucky enough to have jobs should play their collective part in helping maximise
the chances for those who do not.

“Platform
2010 sets out the CIPD’s policy priorities for work in a year which is likely
to see economic recovery – but in a slow and faltering form.  Our priorities combine the macroeconomic
steps needed to create a platform for job creation and policies aimed at
improving the quality and availability of work for all.”