Demographics of the unemployed
Age is an important factor in the unemployment rate. Among those that were aged between 16 and 24, the unemployment rate in January 2023 was 10.8 percent, while for older age groups, the unemployment rate was below the national average. When youth unemployment is broken down further, those aged 16 to 17 had an even higher unemployment rate than those aged 18 to 24, at 21.3 percent, compared with 9.5 percent. The high rate of unemployment seen among young people can be attributed to the fact that many will have just left compulsory education and be entering the workforce for the very first time. Young people will also lack the work experience that older age groups have, and may find it harder to get a job on this basis.When looking at the gender of those that are unemployed, men had a higher unemployment rate in January 2023 than that of women, at 3.8 percent, compared with 3.6 percent. In this month there were 674,000 men and 578,000 women unemployed compared with approximately 950,000 men and 788,000 a two-years earlier in January 2021.