LONG-TERM unemployment, along with having left school early, perceived prejudice among potential employers and poor physical and mental health are among the barriers to homeless people finding employment, a new report has found.
Those surveyed accounted for 51 per cent of those availing of Cork Simon services. Of these 80 per cent of respondents were men, with the majority being in the 35-44 age group and Irish nationals accounting for 78 per cent of respondents.
The report, Working it Out, by Cork Simon Community, found that 95 per cent of the 91 residents surveyed at its Cork facilities in June and July this year were unemployed, with some 92 per cent of these being long-term unemployed having been out of work for a year or more.
“Those surveyed face personal and often complex barriers including poor physical and mental health, addiction, learning difficulty, low levels of confidence and high rates of perceived prejudice by employers against people who are homeless,” the report noted. “Many encounter educational barriers of limited basic skills including literacy, numeracy and IT literacy, high rates of early school leaving and low levels of qualifications.
They face work-related barriers of long-term unemployment, criminal records, limited work experience and limited or redundant work skills,” the report authors added.
The authors identified long-term unemployment as being a barrier to employment for some 92 per cent of unemployed respondents while 65 per cent of respondents cited early school leaving and perceived prejudice among potential employers as barriers to getting work.