Ceasefire generation faces task of finding work

BELFAST BRIEFING:WHEN MARK Stewart was made redundant from the engineering firm he worked for in Ballymena, he knew it would be hard to get another job. There weren't many employment opportunities for young people in the rural Co Antrim town where he lived.

“It is difficult for young people to get a job anywhere – when you start looking, you realise there is nothing out there,” he said.

It’s a view shared by many and one that is reinforced by the latest labour market statistics. These show that the youth jobless rate in the North has hit 23.5 per cent.

According to the chief economist of Ulster Bank in the North, youth unemployment is now 35 per cent above where it was when the Belfast Agreement was signed in 1998.

Richard Ramsey says the latest figures show that since the credit crunch began in August 2007, youth unemployment figures in the North have risen by 10,816 or 130 per cent.The number of people under the age of 25 trying to find a job has soared to 19,151.

In Ballymena, where Stewart was job hunting, manufacturing, construction and retail are the mainstays of the local economy; all three have been hit hard by the recession.

Stewart says he applied for one job after another, but the answer was always the same: “I got turned down for everything I applied for. I had left school without any formal qualifications but I had worked every day since. I had plenty of experience . . . but I couldn’t get a job.”

Some people have undoubtedly benefited from the recent influx of inward investors who have decided to locate back office operations in the North. Well-qualified, bright young graduates are getting opportunities that were not previously there. But if you don’t have the qualifications needed, what happens?

Stewart did not want to be unemployed and claiming benefits; he wanted to work.

“I found it a very hard time being out of work and I ended up just spending a lot more time with my dogs. I have always loved dogs . . . training them and caring for them. Then one day I thought I should do this as a job . . . I discovered a lot of people in Ballymena have dogs but there weren’t really a lot of services for them so I got the idea to set up my own dog walking and training service – Doggy Daycare.

“I got in contact with the Prince’s Trust and they helped me to get it going,” said Stewart.

Without the help from the youth charity – who gave him a loan and a mentor – Stewart doesn’t believe Doggy Daycare would be in business today.

“I learned how to run a business thanks to the Prince’s Trust and I got funding . . . If I had been relying on a bank, I would never have got the money to get started.”

Two years on, Stewart’s business is doing well. He has just opened a Doggy Daycare centre where people can drop their dogs off in the morning when they are going to work and pick them up again on their way home. He also has his own line of dog shampoos and provides a pet taxi and micro-chipping service.

“I wouldn’t say business is exactly booming but . . . I love what I do and people can see that and I think that is really why it is working. I never thought when I was made redundant that it would turn out to be a good thing . . . but everything I do now is for myself rather than [for] someone else.”

If the business flourishes, he hopes to expand further and, in the process, give someone else the chance to get a job.

Stewart is under no illusion about Doggy Daycare – he is not hoping to become the next secret millionaire in Northern Ireland. But he is trying to carve a future, which does not involve relying on government benefits and training schemes – two things that are not dealing with the jobless problem in Northern Ireland.

Government statistics show that, across the UK, people out of work in the three months to July fell by 7,000 to 2.59 million, bringing the jobless rate down to 8.1 per cent. But in the North the figure jumped by 10,000 to 71,000 to bring the local rate to 8.2 per cent.

Should people be worried that, for the first time in seven years, the North’s unemployment rate is above the UK average? Should someone start asking questions about whether there is any local strategy in place to deal with their area’s particular jobless problems?

Political leaders were vocal last week on how they plan to address the fact that the leading local employer – FG Wilson – intends to make 760 people redundant.

Among them was Minister for Employment and Learning Stephen Farry. He promised employees affected a “tailored package of support”.

Fourteen years ago, when they were still in school, thousands of kids were promised a bright future as part of new political beginning. It turns out that they may be the casualties of the shift in global economic fortunes – but the reality is that people without a job have also been let down by the promises of the past.

It might be time to make new economic ones.