Almost one in four people receiving the Pandemic Unemployment Payment in Waterford are under the age of 25.
The National Youth Council of Ireland (NYCI) - which represents organisations working with over 380,000 young people nationwide – has called on the Government to bring forward a package of measures to support young jobseekers with a €191m investment to address the high levels of youth unemployment in the July Jobs Initiative to be announced next week.
It is appealing for concrete actions for jobseekers, including education, training, apprenticeships and employment.
Out of almost 9,500 people receiving the payment in Waterford, 2,136 are aged 25 or younger - working out at 23 percent.
Nationally, almost 90,000 young people are in receipt of the Pandemic Unemployment Payment.
NYCI in its submission to Government is calling for an immediate €191m package of measures to support young people to access education, training, apprenticeships and also to incentivise employers to take on young workers.
“NYCI is calling for investment in programmes such as the Back to Education Allowance, SOLAS training programmes, the Youth Employment Support Scheme, a national Access to Apprenticeship Programme and Jobsplus Youth that will support up to 28,000 young people.
“Further investment and actions will be required later this year, in light of the scale of the challenge, but we need to make a start now and give young people some hope and support,” explained James Doorley, NYCI Deputy Director Doorley.
