This is important to bear in mind, because Labour uses the illusion of skill shortages and rising demand for academic skills as a spur to make reluctant students conform with their educational programme. And the reality is that the radical destruction of the old manufacturing industries has now been mainly completed and the trend is towards more and more unskilled and de-skilled work. It may remain true that, all else being equal, an individual can improve his or her employment prospects by achieving better academic qualifications. It is not because that person is now able to fill some previously unsatisfiable skills shortage. And it certainly is not a solution open to the mass of unemployed workers.
Unemployment is endemic to capitalism.
Educational standards are not at the root of youth unemployment. Indeed Blanchflower and Freeman at the Institute for Public Policy Research have shown that there is no significant pool of 'unemployable' young people, as Labour would have us believe. They point out that young people today are far better qualified than earlier generations when unemployment was lower. Nor have young people priced themselves out of jobs, for their wages in recent years have fallen relative to other workers' pay. Instead, what Blanchflower and Freeman found was that youth employment is 'exceptionally sensitive' to overall employment conditions.