Tue, 25 Jun 2013There has been a drop in interest in the government's Youth Contract, designed to incentivise businesses to recruit young people.

This is according to a survey of 200 businesses from recruitment body the Recruitment & Employment Confederation (REC), with not a single one having used the contract to take on a young person.

And it shows that just 18% of firms that are aware of the contract do intend to make use of it – down from 22% last year.

In total, 30% of firms were not aware of the initiative, down from 31% last year.

REC chief executive officer Kevin Green says that “government has the right intentions but this scheme is being poorly executed”, suggesting the scheme will make no difference to youth unemployment levels “unless there is a change in delivery”.

• Elsewhere, a report from international economic group the OECD finds that young people in the UK spend an average of almost two-and-a-half-years out of work, much longer than in many other developed nations, including Australia, Germany and the Netherlands.