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One in five 16-to-24s are unemployed. An enterprise strategy might improve things

"I am the one in 10," UB40 sang in 1981, when unemployment hit 10% in Margaret Thatcher's Britain. Today the group, which took its name from the unemployment benefit form of the day, would need to sing of the "one in five" 16-to-24-year-olds seeking work. And they would find the bitterness of their generation at being "a statistical reminder in a world that doesn't care" is as deeply felt by today's youngsters struggling to find a first job.

It's not just the huge numbers: almost a million young people actively looking for work – think of the entire population of Birmingham queueing at Job Centres. It's not even that this is the third month in a row that unemployment has risen. The alarming trend is that the proportion of young people on the dole is rising at a faster rate than other age groups. The percentage of those of all ages seeking work hovers at 8%, but the rate for 16-to-24-year-olds has passed 20% and is still rising. So, while the increase in unemployment over three months was 44,000, the number of jobless 16-to-24s rose by 66,000.

This spells disaster for a generation. It has had the Educational Maintenance Allowance taken away, although this would have kept some teenagers at school improving their skill base at low cost to the taxpayer. The Future Jobs Fund has gone – which, though not perfect, allowed youngsters to acquire skills at low cost. Replacing it is a Work Programme, which depends on private contractors matching claimants with vacancies, while trying to make a profit. Some are already complaining that the terms of business aren't attractive.

Getting a million young people into work needs a government strategy. There isn't one. All the evidence suggests that young people who don't get that first entry-level job never catch up. David Blanchflower, former Monetary Policy Committee member and academic, wrote in 2000 of the "permanent scars" that blight a generation when young scientists, archaeologists, designers and teachers simply fail to get on the career paths for which they have (expensively) qualified.

For several months last year, on behalf of the charity New Deal of the Mind, I examined the problems facing young people seeking work in the creative sector (still one of the few expanding areas of the economy). In that time I never met a 20-something graduate who did not want to work. Huge numbers wanted jobs so badly that they were prepared to work for free. So, how do you find work for a million young people? Actually, there are answers. Most need a small amount of money and a large amount of faith.

Back in UB40's heyday, Thatcher needed to sanitise the rising unemployment statistics. She wanted people off the dole queue and starting their own micro-businesses. She was willing to let claimants keep the support they would get in unemployment benefit. Her Enterprise Allowance Scheme lasted from 1983 to 1991. In the year following its introduction, a quarter of a million more people than expected became self-employed. EAS alumni include people now Turner Prize winners, top music producers and a well-known fashion label. Martin Bright, co-author of the report and founder of NDotM is another. Forget the politics, Thatcher's strategy worked.

This government has a New Enterprise Allowance in the offing. It's a lacklustre scheme, requiring a period on the dole and then being monitored and working to time limits. Even so, it offers more hope than this latest obsession with welfare cheats. The real hope, however, is that more and more young people will turn away from the mean-spirited visions of the future they are being offered and create something different for themselves.

Make a Job Don't Take a Job by Barbara Gunnell and Martin Bright, is available at newdealofthemind.com

Barbara Gunnell

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