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CIPD in the news

400,000 now jobless for more than a year, The Daily Telegraph

08 March 2008

The Daily Telegraph reports that the scale of Britain’s “chronic unemployment” problem has been disclosed by figures showing that almost 400,000 of those who are unemployed – a quarter of Britain’s jobless – have been out of work for more than a year.

John Philpott, the Chief Economist at the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development, says: “The fundamental problem is that you’ve got a situation in the jobs market where a lot of people are unemployable, because they don’t have the necessary skills, or for instance they have drug problems, which makes employers reluctant to take them on.

“The great indictment is that not enough has been done to prevent more people flowing into that position. We still have a lot of people coming out of school who don’t have adequate schooling or the skills employers are looking for.”

He also warned that many of Britain’s young workers are missing out on potential jobs because of the influx of migrants.

“I think migrants are having more success in getting the vacancies that are available because a lot of the unemployed have fewer skills and are reluctant to work for relatively little.”