UK facing ‘generational fault line’ over youth unemployment, review warns
UK’s youth unemployment reaches highest level in a decade
Alan Milburn, leading a government review, warns that Britain faces a “lost generation” due to rising youth unemployment, with over 1 million young people potentially locked out of work, education, and training by 2031.
His interim report predicts the number of young people not in education, employment, or training (NEET) could increase from one in eight to one in six, impacting 1.25 million individuals.
Milburn attributes this crisis to a “failure of a system stuck in the past” and a severe lack of entry-level jobs, creating a “hopeless Catch-22” where young people cannot gain essential work experience.
The report highlights a decline of 1.6 million low and medium-skilled jobs, a 35 per cent fall in apprenticeships over the past decade and halved hospitality vacancies, making the first rung of the career ladder inaccessible.
It criticises the public spending imbalance, where £25 is spent on benefits for every £1 on youth employment support, with business leaders and charities urging urgent action to create more opportunities.
