Youth employment, education and training

Status / emerging findings

• NEET composition has shifted: 57% are now economically inactive (not unemployed), with mental health crises and work-limiting health conditions driving the change, up 70% in a decade
• 44% of 24-year-old NEETs have never worked; detachment is predictable from age 3–4, yet UK's NEET rate is 3x the Netherlands and 2x Ireland, indicating policy failure not inevitability
• Businesses cutting youth employment: 60% of hospitality firms cutting hours/headcount; 13% of UK businesses made redundancies due to April 2024 national insurance increases; 26% of small businesses employed fewer staff in Q4 2024
• Current policy operates in silos; Alan Milburn's review signals radical reform needed across schools, curricula, and coordination between education, health, welfare and employment support

Why it matters

The UK's youth detachment is becoming harder to reverse and costlier to fix; mental health and labour market weakness, not just unemployment, are trapping young people, with knock-on effects for economic productivity and public spending.

Tone arc

Started sector-focused (March: employers citing cost barriers); shifted to systemic diagnosis (May: Milburn framed NEET as structural, multi-causal problem requiring cross-government redesign, not incremental employment support).

Key witnesses

Rt Hon Alan Milburn (chairs independent review into young people and work), Professor Dr Hubert Ertl, Dr Veerle Miranda, Dr Emily Erickson, Kate Nicholls (hospitality), Chris Russell (construction), Kate Shoesmith (small business), Tim Balcon (chambers of commerce)