Young people in Greater Manchester are finding it ‘extremely challenging’ to land their first job, a youth charity has claimed.
This comes after a report revealed that Salford is the hardest city in the UK to find a job.
The statistics, released by job search engine Adzuna, shows that there are 55 applicants for every job vacancy in Salford, while the average number nationally is 3.4 applicants.
It also showed that Rochdale was the fifth hardest place to land a job in, with 35 applicants per vacancy.
A spokesman for Rathbone Youth Charity, which helps unemployed teenagers, said: “Looking for work is very difficult at the moment, in Greater Manchester as a whole, and especially for young people.
“We have offices in Salford, and we encourage youngsters to look for work in other boroughs.
“The problem is a lot of them are reluctant to travel.”
Research for the report compared vacancies in Adzuna’s search index of 500,000 live jobs to the number of claimants in each city.
The claimant count data used was based on the latest Labour Market Statistics published by the Office for National Statistics on May 15.
The Rathbone spokesman added: “There is a biased market for bosses nowadays, they would rather employ someone with experience, so it is extremely challenging.”
The Wirral and Hull were the only other cities to have more than 50 applicants for each vacancy, while Aberdeen, Cambridge, Guildford, Reading, and Winchester each had less than one applicant for each job.
Emma Antrobus, Salford Policy Manager for Greater Manchester Chamber of Commerce, said: “Whilst it is disappointing to hear that this report classes Salford as the hardest place in the country to find a job, we know that the picture is more mixed than that.
“There are a number of growing sectors within Salford, such as the creative and media industry based around MediaCity.
“These are attractive industries so we would expect the applicant rate to be high.”
For more information about the Rathbone Youth Charity visit http://www.rathboneuk.org and for more information about Adzuna visit http://www.adzuna.co.uk.
Picture courtesy of Helen Cobain, with thanks.
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