SIR – Sadly, our young people are getting the roughest deal for decades. Many have gone to school, worked hard and gained good paper qualifications and yet still they find themselves looking in vain for a job, chasing vacancies where scores of others are also in competition. Government initiatives have been tried but still youth unemployment remains high.

The present housing market also means that many of them, as well as seeing pursuit of a job come to naught, find they cannot afford to leave the family home, never mind consider the idea of owning their own place.

So with the ‘unwritten contract’ broken that has held true for many, many years, namely that children go on to do better than their parents, it seems harsh to see our leaders encouraging and even demanding that older workers go on even longer, making even fewer openings available.

Surely, getting young people into the workplace should be the very top priority in the field of employment for any government.

Older people have valued experience and still much to offer but it makes more sense to prioritise what has become known as ‘the lost generation’ because if we don’t the future result could be very damaging to the whole of society.

David Hornsby, West View Avenue, Wrose