Young people and UK labour market policy: A critique of ‘employability’ as a tool for understanding youth unemployment

Abstract

This paper presents a critical analysis of the contemporary policy focus on promoting employability among young people in the UK. Drawing on analysis of UK policy approaches to tackling youth unemployment since the late 1970s, we suggest existing critiques of employability as 'supply-side orthodoxy' fail to capture fully its evolving meaning and function. Under the UK Coalition Government, it has been increasingly colonised as a tool of neoliberal governance to legitimise ever more punitive forms of conditional welfare. We argue that this colonisation undermines the value of the notion of employability as an academic tool for understanding the reasons why young people face difficulties in entering the labour market. The paper suggests that the notion of youth transitions offers more potential for understanding youth unemployment, and that more clearly linking this body of research to policy could provide a fruitful avenue for future research. Such a shift requires a longer term, spatially informed perspective as well as greater emphasis on the changing power relations that mediate young people's experiences of wider social and economic transformations. The paper concludes that promoting employment among urban young people requires a marked shift to address the historically and geographically inadequate knowledge and assumptions on which policies are based.

The winner takes it all, the loser has to fall: Provoking the agency perspective in employability research

“…Although employability is not a new concept, it commands now more than before a central place on both the policy and research agenda (Akkermans & Kubasch, ). This aligns with the move towards neoliberalism in most Western societies and the associated emphasis on personal agency: Individuals are held responsible for their employment and career outcomes (Crisp & Powell, ). This emphasis has had a strong impact on career research in general, for example, in the assumption that career control has shifted from the organisation to the individual (Guest & Rodrigues, ).…”

“…employment and career outcomes (Crisp & Powell, 2017). This emphasis has had a strong impact on career research in general, for example, in the assumption that career control has shifted from the organisation to the individual (Guest & Rodrigues, 2015).…”

The quest for sustainable employment: Challenges faced by young people during the job‐search process

“…A radical change in focus from adhering to the demands of employers to acknowledging the gaps in attaining sustainable employability for young people is urgently needed (Crisp & Powell 2016). The findings also highlight that the prevalence of mental health conditions, such as depression and social anxiety, is common amongst young Australians, and may inhibit a young person's ability to effectively present their skills and abilities during job interviews, despite being equipped with the requisite employability assets.…”

Neoliberalism and the Unfolding Patterns of Young People’s Political Engagement and Political Participation in Contemporary Britain

“…Similarly, the coalition of Liberal Democrats and Conservatives instigated a Youth Contract which placed extra surveillance on young people who were unemployed for extended periods of time. Such initiatives frame young people as a specific social issue to be resolved, where the focus resides upon deficiencies within agency and problems with the supply of labour not the lack of opportunities or the prevailing socioeconomic conditions [57]. The individualisation of youth is also reflected in the language of recent youth social policies.…”

“…[83][84]. Indeed, the general direction of youth policies in the UK has been towards supply-side solutions, which frame many young people as deviant or in need of upskilling, at the expense of demand-side solutions, which could investigate, amongst other issues, the paucity and quality of available work to young people, the poor pay progression for younger generations, and why youth have been excluded from access to state initiatives that could improve their material situation [2,57].…”