Birmingham’s bleak youth unemployment issue laid bare through alarming new figures
The top six parliamentary constituencies with the highest proportion of young adults out of work are all in Birmingham.
Birmingham’s bleak youth unemployment issue has been laid bare through alarming new figures.
Youth unemployment will be a pressing issue for whoever takes over from Sir Keir Starmer as Prime Minister, with the latest data showing 735,000 young people are out of work – an increase of 109,000 in the last year.
Just over 16% of people aged between 16 and 24 were unemployed in February to April this year – up from 14.3% from the year before.
Separate figures meanwhile show the left behind parts of the country where young adults are struggling to find jobs – and it makes for grim reading for the second city.
In fact, the top six parliamentary constituencies with the highest proportion of young adults out of work are all in Birmingham.
Analysis of data shows around one in six young people are unemployed in Erdington (16.0%), while 15.3% are out of work in Perry Barr, and 13.7% in Yardley.
The other constituencies in Birmingham are as follows:
- Hall Green and Moseley – 13.5%
- Hodge Hill and Solihull North – 13.4%
- Northfield – 13.3%
- Edgbaston – 9.5%
- Ladywood – 8.5%
- Selly Oak – 5.4%
- Sutton Coldfield – 5.2%
Unemployment levels in Birmingham have been a cause for concern recently, with one councillor arguing they were at “crisis levels” in certain areas.
Ahead of May’s local elections, Conservative Party leader Kemi Badenoch described unemployment figures in particular places across Brum as “absolutely shocking” and argued that tackling it was about “public order”.
“There’s so much shoplifting, lots of people saying they don’t even want to have a business on the high street because people are coming in and stealing things,” she told the LDRS. “We need to take back our streets.”
Prior to the elections, Liberal Democrat councillor Roger Harmer – now the leader of Birmingham Council – said there was a massive opportunity for the city with the investment coming in – but stressed that deprived communities had to be ‘linked in’.
“Businesses are moving up in anticipation [of HS2],” he said. “The Sports Quarter has got a fantastic amount of investment in the city.
“And then you talk about arts and culture being an untapped resource.
“You get all those things motoring, there is huge opportunity.
“The key thing is to link in our deprived communities where there is high unemployment and make sure people there feel like those opportunities are reachable to them and the training they need is provided for them.”
He added: “What we must avoid is new businesses opening up in Birmingham and just filling up the trains coming in from Stratford, Lichfield and so on with more commuters, because that’s where the jobs go.
“We need to really work with the businesses that are coming in and businesses that already here and expanding.”
West Midlands Mayor Richard Parker also launched his flagship plan for youth unemployment back in summer 2024 and set a target of creating 20,000 opportunities over three years.
The youth employment plan offers pre-employment training in the region’s ‘fastest growing sectors’, dedicated work coach support, fully-funded training and access to support.
“We’re backing young people with the skills and opportunities they need to get started in an exciting career and set themselves up for life,” the Labour Mayor previously said.
“This is a win-win as we’re also helping local firms secure the vital talent they need to grow.
“By connecting people to good jobs, we’re not just changing individual lives – we’re strengthening our communities and securing our region’s future prosperity.”
‘Uncertainty in our labour market’
Responding to the latest figures, Helen Dickinson, chief executive at the British Retail Consortium, argued: “If the government is serious about tackling youth unemployment, it must bring down the cost of employing young people and ensure employment reforms support entry-level recruitment and progression.”
Work and Pensions Secretary Pat McFadden said “ongoing instability in the Middle East is causing uncertainty in our labour market”.
He added: “We have the right economic plan for growth and stability in a volatile world – and we are taking action to create opportunity and make sure that no one is left behind.
“We are pushing ahead with the biggest youth employment reforms in a generation to create almost a million opportunities for young people, boosting skills through our Youth Guarantee backed by a £2.5 billion investment and supporting 300,000 disabled people through our Connect to Work programme to futureproof our workforce to help more people into work.”
The above Birmingham figures are lower than the national youth unemployment rate because they do not include young people under 18 and are calculated differently.
They are taken from data published by the House of Commons Library, which shows the number of teenagers and young adults aged between 18 and 24 claiming Jobseeker’s Allowance or Universal Credit (UC) with a requirement to seek work.
These figures are considered the best way of tracking unemployment across different parts of the UK.
They are separate from the youth unemployment rate, which is measured through surveys and includes everyone looking for and available for work, whether or not they are claiming benefits.
This is the international measure of unemployment, as defined by the International Labour Organisation.
The overall unemployment rate has been falling lately and currently stands at 4.9% in February to April, down from 5.2% between November and January.
However, it is higher than it was a year ago (4.6%).
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