A landmark review led by former Labour health secretary Alan Milburn has found that youth unemployment is costing the UK £125bn a year, with more than one million young people now not in work or education for the first time since 2013. The figure exceeds annual education spending and is nearly double the defence budget.
Mr Milburn warned that Britain faces a “lost generation” unless urgent action is taken. The number of 16- to 24-year-olds not in education, employment, or training (NEET) could rise from one in eight to one in six by 2031, affecting 1.25 million young people. He described the crisis as a “whole-system failure” resulting from a lack of entry-level jobs.
Speaking at the launch of his interim report, Mr Milburn rejected the characterisation of young people as “not trying”, calling it a myth. “The problem is that for too many young people, opportunities are not growing – they’re shrinking,” he said. He noted that six in ten NEET young people have never had a job, compared with four in ten twenty years ago, and that detachment is becoming permanent for many.
The review found that 84 per cent of NEET young people want to work or train but are failed by the system. It highlighted a sharp decline in entry-level jobs, with 1.6 million fewer low- and medium-skilled roles, a halving of hospitality vacancies in four years, and a 35 per cent drop in apprenticeships over the past decade. Mr Milburn called for a cross-party effort to address the “generational fault line”.
Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer described the report as “sobering” and said he “will not allow a lost generation”. Mr Milburn urged the government to minimise risks and maximise incentives for employers to hire young people, but warned against easy solutions, noting that the minimum wage rise is not the root cause. He stressed that schools, health, welfare, and the labour market are no longer fit for purpose.
