Unemployed Youth One deplorable feature of the otherwise moderately encouraging
unemployment returns has not received the publicity' it deserves. This is the steady increase in juvenile unemployment. Between July and August, while the total of adult unemployment declined by sonic 2 per cent., the • total of ' unemployed boys and girls increased by nearly 20 per cent. There is •always an increase after the end of the school term in July, but the total in August this year was considerably larger than in August, 1934, and nearly a third larger than two years • ago. The cause of this alarming increase in juvenile unemployment is, of course, the large number of births in the years immediately after the War. It was clearly foreseen, and the remedy, an increase in the school- leaving age, was equally clearly indicated. But nothing Was done. Now that the tragedy of increasing idleness among boys and girls just out of school is upon us as little as ever is being done. The raising:of the school-leaving age has been convincingly advocated on purely educa- tional grounds, apart altogether from its effect on the labour market. There is, in fact, no single reform which enjoys a greater measure of informed support. The only opposition appears to be the vague shadow of " technical difficulties." In this case at least, " technical difficulties " are surely made to be overcome.
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