Young unemployed people are trying to give up lives of crime but struggling with the skills they need to succeed in the workplace, according to youth advocate Carlton Simmons.Mr Simmons was responding yesterday to news from the Labour Force Survey that more than a third of young people aged under 25 are unemployed.In May and June 2012, when the survey was conducted by Government, there were 3,295 people aged 16 to 25 in Bermuda. Of those, 2,119 were working and 1,176 were unemployed giving an unemployment rate of almost 36 percent.Speaking about the issue yesterday, Mr Simmons, who runs Youth on the Move which has endeavoured to provide youth employment training said: “A lot of what we see, especially when it comes to the violence and crime in general is a result of that [unemployment].“A lot of times people don’t want to hear the simple answer, but it is that simple. Not a day goes by that somebody [who] some might consider a gangbanger asks for a job. But I have also seen people who have transitioned from street life and drug life, and because they are now relying on employment for their living, their whole behaviour has changed as a consequence.”He said the state of the economy and the rise in violent crime means selling drugs for a living is “not appealing to some any more”.He explained: “People had alternative means of making income. That’s been stripped away but that lifestyle has prevented them being equipped with the skills they need to succeed in the economy.”He said for that reason, “the world is waiting on Job Corps”, a programme planned by Government to secure employment for unemployed 16- to 24-year-olds. Based on programmes used by the US Department of Labour, the programme was originally slated to come into effect in the second quarter of this year.Giving an update in April, a Government spokeswoman said the planning stages were expected to finish this month. Efforts by this newspaper yesterday to get an update on the launch of Job Corps were unsuccessful. However, a Government spokeswoman said a public meeting will be hosted today to give an update, between 12.15 and 1.45pm at the Fairmont Hamilton Princess hotel.Martha Dismont, of the Family Centre, agreed with Mr Simmons that job training programmes are key to addressing unemployment among the young.“To get employment, you need degrees, skills and experience. Unemployment is high for youth between ages 16 and 24 due to [the fact that] a high number of youth are without degrees, there is a decline in construction jobs, a high number of youths do not have experience or skills because they do not have a GED [and] many part-time jobs are filled by older adults who have taken on ‘menial’ jobs,” she said.She added: “We need training programmes.”The Labour Force Survey was based on a sample of 1,500 households, with a survey questionnaire used to gather details regarding the employment status of each member of the household. The sample represented approximately five percent of all 28,818 households in Bermuda.According to the report, it would produce aggregate results at the 95 percent confidence level with a margin of error of +/- 2.5 percent.