UK risks ‘lost generation’ as youth unemployment nears one million, says govt report

LONDON, May 28 — Britain risks creating a “lost generation” as the number of young people out of work, education and training nears one million and is set to keep rising, a government-commissioned review said today.

Without action, the number of 16- to 24-year-olds not in employment, education or training, so-called “NEETs”, could increase to 1.25 million, or one in six, by 2031, the report warned.

Prime Minister Keir Starmer commissioned the review last year to understand the causes of rising youth unemployment.

“We are at risk of a lost generation,” Alan Milburn, a former Labour cabinet minister who led the review, said ahead of a presentation of the report later today.

“This is not a failure of young people. It is a failure of a system stuck in the past,” he said.

While 84 per cent of NEETs want to be employed or in training, the report found that Britain’s young people are struggling to reach “the first rung of the career ladder”.

The report said this was a result of a “sharp decline” in entry-level roles such as hospitality jobs, weekend jobs and apprenticeships.

“Whether it is education or health or welfare, that system fails to enable their participation in the labour market,” Milburn said.

Proposed solutions are set to be detailed later in the year.

“The issues identified in the Milburn Review have long been reported by businesses,” said Shevaun Haviland, director general of the British Chambers of Commerce.

The “report must be a wake-up call for policymakers about the crisis of young people not in employment, education and training,” she said. — AFP