That's not quite true, NfkDumpling. It's the over 50s in Norfolk who can't find work. The overall unemployment rate in Norfolk is low by national standards anyway.
^More young people are off Job Seeker’s Allowance than any other age group in Norfolk, figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) have revealed.
While fewer young people than ever claimed jobs benefit last month - seeing a dramatic 43pc drop in signing on compared to a year ago - older people in Norfolk have struggled to match the national rise in levels of employment.
In Norfolk, out of 7,650 people claiming Job Seekers Allowance (JSA), just 1,915 of those were 18 to 24-year-olds unable to get work between March and April 2015.
This is down from the 3,360 young people in Norfolk who claimed JSA out of the total 12,545 claimants in April 2014 - bucking the national trend which shows that youth unemployment is still the major issue.
However, only 60pc of people aged 50 or over in Norfolk came off job benefits within 13 weeks, compared to younger age groups where on average of 70pc were able to sign off over the same period.
Paul Gisbey, operations leader at Job Centre Plus based in Ipswich, said more jobs were coming up in sectors requiring the kind of flexibility that young people are were well-positioned for.
“The retail and hospitality sectors are seeing more jobs, and young people often have flexible approaches that are suited to these industries,” said Mr Gisbey. “There are also more jobs in the construction sector - in fact we’re seeing a shortage of applicants here so we will expect even more jobs to come in.”
Yet whilst Norfolk’s young people are beating the region’s overall drop in JSA claims since last year, older people are remaining unemployed for longer - which is the most worrying indicator for good job prospects, Mr Gibsey said.
Once people are unemployed for a year or more, their job prospects become increasingly bleak as their physical and mental health suffer and employers become less willing to take them on, he said.
“For older workers the statistics are not so good, and we’re trying to find out exactly what the barriers are,” he said. “Many older people are coming out of long-term unemployment, and often do not have the IT skills needed for many jobs.”
Meanwhile, across the UK, the economy saw the largest annual fall in long-term unemployment for 17 years, the report from the ONS said.
The government attributed the strong national employment figures to their Work Programme, which emphasises a move from welfare to employment, and the “Day One Work” requirements on young people to do work experience or volunteering to receive benefits.
But almost nine million people were still classed as economically inactive, including students, those looking after a family, those on long-term sick leave or those who had become long-term unemployed, according to the ONS.
Chancellor George Osborne said: “With full-time employees making up nearly all of the increase in employment over the past year, this shows we are on the way to our goal of full employment.”
Elsewhere, the national figures also showed one of the highest recorded rates of employment among women at 68pc - though this was still less than employment rates among men of 78pc.
Yet in Norfolk young women disproportionately were less likely to claim jobs benefits than young men, with only 32.9pc of JSA claimants aged 18 to 24 being female, and the other two-thirds of claimants all young men.
The sectors that had the most job vacancies in the region was the care industry and the construction sector, both of which were crying out for more skilled applicants - making training programmes a key part of any long-term solution.^
www.edp24.co.uk/business/generational_divide_revealed_in_unemployment_figures_for_norfolk_1_4073088
