ALMOST three-quarters (73%) of young people in Scotland claim that life is harder than ever for the young unemployed, according to new research.
The study found almost half (49%) of young people north of the Border think finding a job is harder than this time last year with more than two-fifths (45%) feeling disposable in their current job.
The figures come after a study by The Prince's Trust and Royal Bank of Scotland Group (RBS).
They have been published to coincide with The Prince's Trust's move to promote self-employment as a way out of worklessness for young people.
More than half of young people in Scotland (60%) believe setting up in business would give them a sense of achievement and purpose, while 54% think it is a viable route out of unemployment, the research found.
The Prince's Trust's Youth Business Scotland programme aims to support young people as they explore the idea of setting up a business.
Heather Grey, director of The Prince's Trust Scotland, said: "It is clear it's a difficult time for young people in Scotland as they're becoming increasingly disillusioned with their lives. The Prince's Trust is committed to ensuring young people receive the right support to help them move forward into education, training, employment and self-employment.
"Through our Youth Business Scotland programme, young people have the opportunity to explore and test their business ideas and will be fully supported by business mentors.
"The start-up funding the trust offers is a vital investment for our young entrepreneurs and allows them to create opportunities for themselves at a time when unemployment remains a persistent barrier."
The campaign to promote self-employment comes after The Prince's Trust Scotland merged with its sister charity, The Prince's Scottish Youth Business Trust (PSYBT), specialists in business start-ups.
More than 1000 young people now benefit from entrepreneurial support, Ms Grey added.
Researchers found almost half (48%) of self-employed young people questioned across the UK said starting their own business is the best decision they have ever made and more than half (51%) said they would recommend starting a business to unemployed young people.
More than one in 10 said they set up in business because they could not find a job.
Chris Sullivan, chief executive of corporate banking at RBS, said: "RBS is proud to continue to support The Prince's Trust's Youth Business Scotland programme which is proven to help young people set up business.
"This is particularly important in the current economic climate and I hope this will inspire any young unemployed person to consider self employment."
Meanwhile, new figures reveal insolvencies in Scottish firms are at a two-year low. A total of 65 companies failed last month, 25% down on the previous year, the latest Business Insolvency Index from Experian showed.
Researchers said Scotland has historically had some of the lowest insolvency rates, but after January 2012 its insolvency rates were higher and more in line with the rest of the UK. However, during July 2012 Scotland had the biggest month-on-month fall in its insolvency rate – from 0.09% in June to 0.05% in July – and is now at its lowest point since July 2010, the study said.
Across the UK as a whole, 1776 companies (0.09% of the business population) failed last month, compared to 1,962 companies (0.10%) in July 2011.
Max Firth, managing director of Experian Business Information Services UK&I, said: "Since March this year, when the insolvency rate peaked at 0.11%, it has remained fairly stable – between 0.08% and 0.09%. The lack of any real increase is clearly welcome and this picture is unlikely to change in the near future.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article