4 JANUARY 1935, Page 7

The World Problem of Workless Juveniles The remedy for juvenile

unemployment, says a Report of the International Labour Office. is to increase the number of jobs or reduce the number of candidates ; and with the latter object it recommends the raising of the school age to at least fifteen. That is a step which the British Government has not been willing to take. The report further recommends full-time attendance at schools of all unemployed juveniles. We have gone Part way to meet that requirement. As to employ- Ment centres and recreational services they already to some extent exist in this country in the form of Labour Exchanges, and in the social side of the work of Instruction Centres and other agencies. Juvenile unem- ployment is today a world problem, and we may find some satisfaction in realizing that we have gone far beyond the majority of countries in adopting the ameliorative Measures which the Labour Office recommends. But the first and most important of them all, the raising of the school age, we continue to neglect.