A generation of young British people is being left behind by an economy that has failed to create meaningful employment pathways for school leavers and graduates alike, according to a landmark review that warns of a £125 billion cost to the public purse if action is not taken immediately.
The report, commissioned by the government and led by former social mobility tsar Alan Milburn, paints a stark picture of a country in which the number of 16 to 24-year-olds classified as not in employment, education or training — the so-called NEET generation — is on course to reach 1.25 million by 2031.
That figure represents not merely an economic failure but a profound social one. Young people interviewed for the review described submitting hundreds of job applications without receiving a single interview. Others spoke of abandoning their ambitions entirely, retreating into inactivity not from choice but from exhaustion and despair.
“Young people described submitting hundreds of job applications without receiving a single interview — and then giving up entirely.”
The report identifies a series of structural failures at the root of the crisis. It points to a collapse in apprenticeship quality, an erosion of the careers advice infrastructure in schools, geographic inequality that concentrates opportunity in already-prosperous regions, and an employer culture that increasingly demands experience even for entry-level positions.
Ministers are understood to be preparing a significant welfare reform package in response, though the details have not yet been made public. The Chancellor, Rachel Reeves, acknowledged the findings in a statement to Parliament, describing the scale of the problem as unacceptable and pledging action before the summer recess.
Labour came to power in 2024 promising to break the cycle of youth disadvantage, but critics argue that two years into government the tangible improvements in young people's economic prospects remain limited. The opposition has seized on the report as evidence that warm words have not been matched with policy substance.
Employers and educators speaking to The National Post expressed cautious optimism that the review could catalyse meaningful change, but warned that piecemeal interventions would be insufficient. What is needed, they argue, is nothing less than a wholesale reimagining of the relationship between education and the labour market — one that takes seriously the particular challenges facing young people in post-industrial towns and cities far from the economic gravity of London and the South East.