youth unemployment

Labour wants to raid bankers’ bonuses to create jobs for young people. The Conservatives say the sums don’t add up.

Growth is down but employment is up. It’s a conundrum for economists. Can we rely on the jobless figures or is the government cooking the books? FactCheck finds out.

The number of apprenticeships continues to soar – but what’s the real story behind the headline? FactCheck investigates.

Labour are probably unwise to try to make too much political capital out of the lack of progress on this problem. To do so only invites comparisons with their own record, which is far from exemplary.

Apprenticeships went up by 75 per cent in London from 2005/06 to 2010/11 for under-19s and by nearly 30,000 per cent for over-25s.

“The idea is that Labour used to cook the books by giving tens of thousands of young people a temporary government-subsidised job through the Future Jobs Fund.”

Earlier this month the Lib Dem HQ advertised its internship scheme for 2012 – FactCheck investigates how far it promotes “socially mobility”.

Which generation has been hit hardest by the government’s austerity measures? It is the question that has been at the top of the political agenda since the budget sparked accusations that the government was raiding pensioner’s pockets with a new Granny Tax. FactCheck investigates.

“Some people will be antagonised by any discussion of the fact that spiralling unemployment is hitting black people the hardest”, Diane Abbott wrote in today’s Guardian. And rightly so. But some people will be further antagonised by the possibility that Britain’s first black female MP may have got her facts wrong. Has she? FactCheck investigates.

The firm might have expected its promise to create 20,000 jobs over the next two years to be enthusiastically endorsed – or at least, to borrow from its own slogan, to be embraced with the verdict “every little helps”. But few are prepared to take what Tesco says on trust. Do these figures strip out jobs lost? Are they full-time posts? Over to the team.

“Much like the French Foreign Legion, the scheme is “entirely voluntary” to enter, but there may be an element of compulsion later on if you decide to leave.”

Youth unemployment sailed past the million mark last month with much furore, prompting the Office for National Statistics (ONS) to wade into the waters with some perspective. FactCheck takes a look at the findings.

“If this was a boxing match, we’d give Mr Cameron a narrow win on points.”

Mr Miliband reminded MPs of the Chancellor’s optimistic assessment at the time of the spending review in November last year. George Osborne said at the time that private sector job creation would “far outweigh” cuts in public sector employment. But have those high hopes – based on forecasts from the independent Office of Budget Responsibility, been dashed?

Youth unemployment sailed past the million mark last week, and within days Nick Clegg has a billion pounds and a plan. The same thing happened in April 2009: youth unemployment hit an all-time high, and Labour rushed out the Future Jobs Fund, pledging a £1bn. But this time it’s different, says Mr Clegg – this time taxpayers will get value for money and the jobs will last longer. Is he right or is FactCheck having a déjà vu?