'Lost generation’: why can’t young people get jobs? What should be done?

Alan Milburn has delivered the first part of his government-commissioned report on why increasing numbers of people aged 16 to 24 are not in education, employment or training (Neet).

1) This is a very significant and increasing problem. About 1 million young people across the UK are not in jobs, training or education – about one in eight – and things are getting worse.
2) It is very connected to inequality. A constant thread of the report is that these issues are structural, not down to today’s young people being work shy or coddled. And much of this is due to disparities in wealth, background, education, geography or ethnicity.
3) Health issues, including mental health, play a huge role. Health “has become central to who becomes Neet and who stays Neet”, calling this “a story that should disturb anyone who cares about the future of young people in this country”.
4) The social security system does not help. The study estimates that for every £25 the Department for Work and Pensions spends on benefits for young people, it devotes just £1 to helping them back into work, calling this symptomatic of a system which does little to change things.
5) *The labour market is difficult*- Entry-level jobs are becoming harder to get, in part because of this remote recruitment, but also because the roles traditionally filled by younger people – retail, customer service, warehousing – are now either scarcer or more specialised.
6) There are many structural issues . As many young people assume they will never be able to afford their own home, there is a lack of the stability required to plan work or training.
7) This is not about laziness or a generation unsuited to work. They are, however, a product of a changed world: “Young people are different from those who came before them. Not worse. Not lazier. Not less intelligent. But different in ways that have material consequences.”