Letter: Obliging the unemployed to train without obliging society to provide them with jobs

Sir: You correctly pinpointed the age range 18-25 ('Help for the jobless young', 5 February) as being highly at risk from the effects of unemployment. However, you imply that only the unskilled and illiterate will be affected. I have specialised in recruiting young graduates for many years. Never have they been as skilled, adaptable, aware and employable. One problem is the level at which they resign and give in to the employment situation.

Some stick to manual jobs such as bar tending, others try the more menial clerical route. Many employers are still not sympathetic to their efforts and try to evaluate them by their track records since college. This is highly unfair. There is a five-year band of employable young 'professionals' whose attitudes will shape the early 21st century. World-weary and disillusioned is not the way I would want anyone to start the new millennium.

Yours sincerely,

JANE CROSTHWAITE

London, SW7

5 February