Rural Employment and Youth Unemployment Project

In 1983, the Tavistock Institute of Human Relations was approached by the Development Commission for some preliminary ideas surrounding factors affecting rural youth unemployment. A grant was approvved, and in 1984, the TIHR commenced a one year pilot research project to assess these factors with the aim of influencing and informing policy to lead rural employers to take on more young people as employees. The study considered economic costs and benefits to employers, availability of training, and the attitudes of young people.

The objectives of the project were: to describe four different rural local labour markets as they related to youth employment and unemployment, to describe the way a sample of employers in each local area recruited, trained, placed and progressed young employees, to identify the constraints experienced by these employers on the recruitment and employment of young people, to begin to describe the structure of local rural youth labour markets on the basis of the local studies, and to begin to understand how young people participated in the local economy and what were some of their available range of work identities. The four areas selected for field work and case studies were Hambleton, North Yorkshire, Harborough, Leicestershire, Forest of Dean, Gloucestershire, and North Norfolk.

The Tavistock Institue project team undertook detailed interviews with employers to assess their attitudes to employing young people, and their understanding of the prospects for youth employment as a whole. Questionnaires were also completed by varying groupsof young people in each area to understand their own attitudes to employment opportunities, including what they looked for in a job, and issues that prevented them from finding and keeping a job.