UNEMPLOYED YOUTH

Evening Post, Volume CVII, Issue 146, 21 June 1924, Page 16

UNEMPLOYED YOUTH

<>RAVE PROBLEMS IK SCOTLAND.

A; grave feature of the unemployment problem is that more than 40- per cent, ot the unemployed in Scotland are young men between the ages of 18 and 28. (says the. "Scotsman"). In seven towns there are 13,444 young men between 18 and 28 who were unemployed, and of that number. 60.6 per' cent, are unskilled. This aiunlber represents 40.7 per cent! of the total registration. In Edinburgh 40 per cent, of those on' the register are under 28,;. and 46.9 per cent, of them ..aro unskilled. In- one place in Scotland the percentage of unskilled is as high as 88 per cent. The significance of these figures can hardly be missed.' Before the war; the term "unskilled" was generally, applied^to labourers, who, though n6t being apprentices, had a measure of skill and^ train'rUg:?; The-plasterer's labourer and; the engineer's labourer, though "unskilled," •. .'Tilid" a practical knowledge which ahjiintraincd man did not'possess.. To-day the:/y.Q.une me'ii'-.between' 18 and 28 who are:''unskilled- have not had th'o opportunity of employment, and arc ■without that considerable degree of lixhnicsil knowledge possessed, !by the plus? tere'r's or the engineer's labourer. Many of these men entered the Army in 1914. and-iirsjj themselves. 10 years later, without the prospect oi b\;in;c Uained to foliow a trade. Their position in deplorable.