In contrast to recent reports of record levels of youth unemployment, More Than Business News is reporting that apprentice levels are also at a record high, up by 27% from 2008/9 levels:
The Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) said that 143,000 apprentices – out of 239,000 starters – completed their training in the 2008/09 academic year. This means that seven out of 10 people who started a course saw it through to completion, representing a 5% increase on the previous year.
Apprenticeships Minister Kevin Brennan said that investing in …

The Northern Ireland Public Service Alliance (NIPSA) has expressed concerns to the Belfast Health and Social Care Trust regarding staff shortages in the sector:
In the letter, a union representative said the trust must end its policy of cutting frontline services.
The Belfast Trust said its number of vacancies were “within normal levels”.
Kevin McCabe, the union’s officer representing the health sector, said that the McElhill case in Omagh and the Baby P case in Haringey had caused heightened scrutiny of child protection policy.

In contrast to a news report earlier this week, the Daily Express reports today that youth unemployment has reached a record high:
YOUTH unemployment reached a record high today as the jobless total nudged 2.5 million, the worst total since the mid-1990s.
The number of unemployed 16 to 24-year-olds was 952,000 in the three months to October, a quarterly rise of 6,000 and the highest figure since records began in 1992.
Total unemployment increased by 21,000 to 2.49 million, the highest level since early 1995, although the quarterly rise was the smallest for …

Although youth employment is high of late, a recent TUC report highlights that even though this is the case, employment rates still aren’t as high as mid-1980s:
26 per cent of young people were classified as either unemployed or “economically inactive” in 1984, three years after the end of the downturn earlier in the decade.
This total was compared by the organisation to youth unemployment figures from July to September 2009 of 21 per cent.
Via Women in Technology