Unemployment (1 of 3)
	Unemployment in Liverpool has remained persistently higher than the national average for decades, with rates for the under 25s and long term unemployed significantly higher than the UK. In the Pathways areas, the rates have been and remain higher still – among the highest in the city (Employment Services, Mar 2000; Dingle Toxteth Education Action Zone Action Plan, Mar 2000).
	With population loss gathering pace in 1990s, poverty becomes more concentrated: 52% of Granby Toxteth residents live in poverty (claiming Income Support, Housing Benefit and Council Tax Benefit), Dingle and Parks 45%, the rate for Liverpool is 37%, Pathways average 43%, non-Pathways average 25% (Pathways Impact Study, 1999*). Lone parent Income Support rates are also high and there is an identified need for Family Learning, in particular Literacy, which can benefit parents and children also, ‘low educational and vocational attainment rates’ affect the collective morale of all four Pathways areas. In fact, the complex and interdependent nature of social exclusion within families and communities is something which Artskills is aware of and contributes to overcoming: the exclusion of parents transferred to their children and the debilitating effects of increasing disaffection and social exclusion of young people on their parents.		‘Social exclusion and low levels of attainment are closely linked since, as the DETR state: ...the proportion of people with low or no grades (at GCSE) represent the best available indication of the group of young people who are at a disadvantage in the youth labour market and beyond and who are at risk of social exclusion and that ...those young people with GCSE(s) at very low grades are not in a significantly better position in most labour markets than those without any.’ DETR Consultation document, 1998