The growing crisis facing young people in Britain

Across the UK, in every place, there is a crisis building.Behind closed doors, more than a million young people who go nowhere do nothing every single day.That's despite the fact they would do anything to be in work.These young people at an employability workshop in London say they've tried everything.

I think I probably applied to around 500 jobs within a year.After the interviews is when they kind of start ghosting you a bit.You just scroll and you apply and you change your CV and you just keep going.

The self -doubt that hangs over you thinking that you may be unworthy for any job role.

The Prime Minister visiting an apprenticeship scheme this afternoon.The number of NEETs is at its highest in more than a decade.

This is a long -standing, long -term problem.It's been going on for many years.It's complicated.I'm pleased that some of the measures we've already put in place are coming on train.next month, £3 ,000 support for any employer that takes someone who's been unemployed for six months, a young person, and gives them an apprenticeship, that start that they need.And then was this what you chose?

But the first part of a government commissioned report out today says that an entire generation is being lost.There's a multitude of reasons.A difficult labour market.The education system not preparing children for work.Apprenticeships in short supply.And successive governments haven't been able to get a grip on it.

Former Blair -era minister Alan Milburn, who's leading the report, is trying to get to the bottom of why.It's easy to say that the system is messed up, but the hard part is actually doing something about it and doing it quickly.

Yes, but...The easiest thing is to rush to fail solutions.The NEET rate has been barely below 10 % over 25 years.So this is deep, it's stressful.and you've got to be clear about what is going on before you provide a solution for it.These young people are now on the front line of a perfect storm.

People could be forgiven for not believing this is actually going to happen, and certainly not fast enough.

So we've got to look at what's happening in schools, we've got to look at what's happening in the health system, and we've got to look at what's happening in the labour market and the welfare system.And it's only if you do these things together, and you go for a radical system reset, that you're going to be able to tackle what is an entrenched and chronic problem.

Health issues also play a huge role, and it's cyclical.The longer they're out of work, the worse mental health can get.But for every £25 the DWP spends on benefits for this age group, only £1 is spent on helping them back into work.

Should the benefits bill in the country be lower?Yes.The way to do it and make it sustainable is to get young people into work, which is what 84 % of these young people, a million, want to do.Well, this used to be a problem for somebody else's child.Now when you've got, what, 15 % of young people who are not in education and employment and training who are graduates, this is becoming a problem for parents everywhere.

The Conservatives also face the issue during their time in power.They say Labour is now failing to fix the fundamentals.

Lifting the tax burdens off businesses, lifting the red tape burden off businesses, so that they can be providing young people with those opportunities.Yes, of course, there's an education and skills side.We've said that we will double the number of apprenticeship opportunities for young people.That's a really good option for people to learn and earn at the same time.And we will be reforming welfare, so that rather than giving young people cash handouts, we're giving people support and it would make sense for them to be in work rather than on benefits.

This is jobs never found, houses never owned, a life never lived on the same terms as the generations that came before.And it's a fault line that could impact every part of our society.

Well, many young people told Alan Milburn that they had lost hope in the system.And that was also the warning more widely from the would -be Labour leader, Andy Burnham, in an article in today's Times where he warned that the public were losing faith and looking elsewhere for answers.Our senior political correspondent, Paul McNamara, is in Westminster.

Yeah, this article, though, wasn't born out of a need to respond to a report by Tony Blair's former health secretary, Alan Milburn.It was born out of a need to respond to an essay by Tony Blair himself, in which he committed a pretty comprehensive drive -by of all things Labour, accusing the government of having, quote, no coherent plan.Not only have we heard from Andy Burnside, we've also heard from Keir Starmer.We'll start there.He writes, quote, or the government.I'll save you reading his nearly 3 ,000 word substack.

In short, he says he made the right policy choices given the backdrop he inherited and his plan is working.The more interesting response, though, is...Andy Burnham's mere 1 ,500 -word response in The Times.Andy Burnham, of course, running to be MP in Makefield and, if successful, likely to be running as Prime Minister.So this is a glimpse of how he may govern.

He writes, essentially, that Tony Blair is wrong.What he's learned as Greater Manchester Mayor is that, quote, you can't just leave it to the markets.And he's achieved economic success by being, quote, very interventionist.What the country needs is strong public control of transport, energy, water, education and housing.Now a couple of ministers have made the point to me today that Andy Burnham's already committed to the government's existing fiscal rules.So can he really afford to be that interventionist on all those things?

Probably not.But what we might have got a glimpse of today is the first draft of the 2029 Labour manifesto.

Now let's return to our top story about young people struggling to get to work.Their number could rise to a million and a quarter in five years, according to today's interim report by Alan Milburn.He says that no amount of reform to individual policy areas will be enough.An entire system change is needed.Well, joining me here in Leeds is Oscar Brown, who's a graduate who's applied for over 300 jobs since leaving university, with no luck.Rashida Saleh, who struggled to find a job after leaving college until he found and was then hired by a campaign who helped young people get to work.

Also joining me is the Vice -Chancellor of Manchester University, Professor Duncan Iverson, and down the line is the CEO of UK Hospitality, Kate Nicholls.Thank you very much all for joining us.Oscar, let's start with you.What's been going on then?300 jobs.It's tough out there.

It is, yeah.So I think after leaving university, I applied for, yeah, 300 to 400 jobs.I haven't really heard anything back from them.I've moved cities to try and find work elsewhere.And it's, yeah, it's demotivating sometimes, I think, especially not hearing anything back.That's the hardest part.

What's the application process like then?How many are you going through?What are you doing?

So I used to try and do nine to five a day.So trying to, like, imitate the working day.And I'd probably try and do about 15 to 20 a day.But once they're online and you're filling in essays or forms or even video interviews, it can take, yeah, it can take about an hour per interview going.

And what are you applying for?You're applying for jobs in your field.You did criminology.Is that what you're applying for, just those specific areas?

So at first, yeah, I focused on things that were to do with my degree or relevant, but as time has gone on, I've kind of broadened my search into anything entry -level jobs that don't require a degree, where I work.or retail.

And how has it been for you, applying for all those jobs and then not hearing much back at all?

It's definitely demotivating over time.It can definitely...It can feel hopeless.It can feel like I'm doing something wrong, but I don't know what.And I think to get feedback would definitely help to understand what I can do next time to improve my chances.

Yeah, absolutely.Demoralising, I see...Rashid there, you're nodding along.What was it like before you got, you know, congratulations on the apprenticeship that you're starting in September, but what has it been like for you, similar to Oscar?

Well, exactly as he said before, it can be demotivating, the relentless applications, the forms, filling out the forms and getting rejection.But what's even worse is no feedback.You don't know what went wrong.You don't know why.And that is something that Well, like you need, you need to know what went wrong.

And so you came out of sixth form and then were looking for work.What was that process like?Do you feel like you got enough help to do that?

The thing is the services that are there to support you.Many people don't know they exist, first of all.So there's people who are unaware of the services.And then another reason is that they're fragmented.There's various services.You've got to go to various different places to find those services.

How are you meant to navigate through all of that while still being able to find a job, while still being able to keep on top of your mental health, physical health, cost of living crisis, all of this can pile up and it can be demotivating, it can be stressful, but the wording of NEET I would say doesn't help.

What word would you like to use instead of NEET then?That's all we've been talking about all day so we might as well

rebrand.Basically, leet.Leet is looking for education, employment and training, rather than neat.Neat portrays someone as absent, it portrays them as disengaged, someone who's not looking, but leet wants you to be there.shift that from deficit to potential, then identity can shift.When identity shifts, then engagements can follow on.

Just before I bring in Duncan Oscar, you will have heard this criticism before about the snowflake generation, those bedroom generation, Covid generation.What do you make of those descriptions?Is that an accurate description of your generation and what you're going through?

No, I think it's just too broad and it's looking at edge cases which maybe aren't reflective of the entire generation.And I think to say that no one's looking for work is just inaccurate.I think people are looking for work, but I think for a lot of people, burnout can really demotivate people and stop people wanting to continue looking for work all day every day.And I think it can get really hard.

Have you just thought about quitting and not looking for anything anymore?

Maybe, but also at the same time, I think you need to keep going.I think it's kind of...You just know that you have to work.You know what I mean?Working is so important for people.It's so important for well -being and stuff like that.

So I think, yeah, it's always a drive to keep going.

And Duncan, I'll bring you in here.What is it like listening to these two young people, highly articulate, so motivated and passionate?Why can't they get a job?

I mean, I think it's pretty inspiring, actually, listening to both Oscar and Rashid.they're both charting their own ways and pretty impressive with a lot of integrity and a lot of drive.I think we are letting Oscar and Rasheed down though a bit right now.We do need a, I agree with Alan Milburn, we need a whole of system approach to the challenge of giving young people theeducation, the training, the skills they need to transition into a really volatile, complex labour market and a really volatile and complex world.

What do you make then of the rise of AI and technology?Is that something that is affecting this generation in being able to get jobs in the future?

Look, it's a complex story.Undoubtedly it is. I think one thing we need to do, certainly in the higher education sector, is give our young people at universities, for example, more work opportunities and experience when they're studying with us.We can't assume, as maybe it was four or five years ago, that they're going to pick up those skills in their first job out of college or out of uni or out of school.So at Manchester we're thinking a lot about how do we give our students opportunities to develop those skills while they're with us.

Right, where are those jobs though?Where are these jobs of the future?Where are they going to be?

Well look, I mean, in terms of the labour market, the jobs of the future, I think there's going to be a whole range of new jobs.technology is changing the world, and yes, some jobs are going, but new tasks are being created.We need more people in health, in social services, in the private sector.We need more entrepreneurs.We need people creating new jobs.You know, one thing I think is we should think of building on the looking for work.

We should think of students and young people not only as jobs takers, but job makers sometime.And we should think about how we set them up for that kind of success.

I'm going to come back to you because I know that Manchester University has a scheme to get people into work.I do want to bring in Kate here.Kate, what do you think is going massively wrong here?

Well, I think today's report shows it's got very clear -sighted analysis of the scale of the problem, the challenges that we're all facing, the fact that it is multifaceted.But it does draw one clear distinction.It highlights the fact that if you significantly increase the costs of employing people, then you will lose jobs and you will lose opportunities.And it's hard toto hear the stories that we've just heard, and many that we've heard throughout this entire process, where we are letting down a young generation.But it's quite clear that the increases in the national insurance around jobs, particularly the 75 % increase in tax on part -time entry -level jobs, has had an impact on job opportunities that are open in hospitality.

We were the canary in the coal mine over the course in the course of last year, we lost 100 ,000 jobs in hospitality.We were the largest provider of first jobs for many people, summer jobs, starter jobs, first jobs, but also meaningful careers.And if we are feeling that pressure and reducing the level of opportunities and the headcount that we're employing, you can see that mirrored across the economy as a whole.So this report does make clear that there's a direct link between increasing employment taxes and reduced opportunities.

So what would your remedy be for that?young people less.Oscar Rashid would you fancy that being paid less?Is that what your solution is?

No, it's not about the pay.The pay is absolutely fine.We work with that.It's the significant increase on taxes, the employer's national insurance, the threshold for that halved, the rates of tax on those jobs increased that the employer pays.It's nothing to do with pay.We want to make sure that we pay our young people and all of those who work with us a fair pay.

But it's about the tax take.And we need to look, if we're wanting to incentivize people coming into work, providing supportive pathways into work, not reducing job opportunities and we need to reduce the tax on jobs and the tax on employment so that we can give these people the first taste of work, their first step on the ladder.At the moment, the government's policy has cut that entry level away and that we're seeing the consequences laid bare now.

And Duncan, can I just come back to you on this with work?I mean, Oscar is a graduate and is still looking for work, 300 jobs.Do you feel like, or does Oscar possibly feel like there's no point in uni anymore if you are still having to apply for 300 jobs and you're not getting anywhere?

No, look, I mean, I think Oscar can answer the question for himself, obviously, but I think university is still a really important source of education for life, not only for the job market.We have to remember that as well.But we do need to think harder about how we give our university students a chance to develop those skills to experience work whilst they're studying with us.And we need to work with our partners, our industry partners, our community partners, government partners, to do that.And I think that's been missing, I think, recently.

And Oscar, to you as well, do you feel like uni was worth it, just briefly?

I'd say so, yeah.I think the life skills it teaches you can be really important.And also, I think, with the saturation of the market with degrees, like, everyone has a degree.I feel like you need a degree nowadays to get by.

To push forward.And Rashid, what would you say?What's the one thing you would say, getting people back to work?What would you say?

In getting people back to work, I would say to not let the label, the labelling, system failures, duh.

Absolutely.Not let the system fail and the rebranding of Neats to Leaks.I like it.We'll end it there.Thank you all very much.That's all we have time for this evening.