Jobless figures fuel business breakfast debate

Nearly a million young jobless was the subject of the first of a series of business breakfast debates hosted by Teesside University Business School.

Almost one in five young people out of work - and the true picture is much worse.

The Department of Work and Pensions has announced a raft of measures to counter youth unemployment but the Department for Children, Schools and Families has released figures which show that the numbers of 16 to 24-year-olds not in education, employment or training - the group now called NEETs - has risen to 1.08m.

The North-east has more NEETs as a percentage of its young population than anywhere else in the UK. And the acronym matters because it stands not so much for a statistic as a state of mind - and one that could trap thousands of young people on Teesside into a life without work.

In the first of our jointly hosted Big Issue debates, which give business leaders the opportunity to debate national issues at a local level, our panellists wrestle with the spectre of third and fourth generation joblessness and what companies need to help address the issue.

See what they have to say on our video.

BBC Radio 4 You & Yours programme has an open mic debate for employers, parents and young people facing the problems created by youth unemployment. Go to www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/youandyours

The Big Issue debates are supported by the Evening Gazette, the Tees Valley Institute of Directors, and Teesside University.

---