Horrifying to read Liverpool now has the highest youth unemployment rate in the country. BBC make a clear link with lockdown and the city’s dependence on leisure & tourism.

Young people are statistically most likely to move for work.

So add this to the outflow that already...
...takes place, as students tend to move north for Uni and then south for work in their 20s.

This is set to create difficult situation for companies looking to grow and expand, or even survive, trying to recruit skills for roles....
LCR is already great to start a business in (affordable, entrepreneurial, welcoming) but a terrible ecosystem to scale one (skills shortage, lack of funding, brand)...
The recovery plans seem much more focused on building things, shovel ready is the new hot phrase. Although, more specifically, building things that dont address the issue of econmic diversification and supporting young people in to *good* jobs.
Notwithstanding the amazing work of “Without Walls” delivered by @CultureLPool and their ambition to scale it.

But we must ask questions like... do we even need grade A office anymore...? Massive companies now seeing they can slash overheads - lack of “office workers” is
...ripping the spending power out of the day time economy, let alone the nighttime economy. High street footfall is sluggish to recover because people will not be returning *ever* in the numbers they were at even as recently as February.
And sadly young people, in particular women, work in retail and will suffer the job losses that come from this accelerated trend.

In conclusion: Liverpool’s recovery strategy needs to have a youth focus and I’m not sure I’ve seen enough of that.
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