Wasted Youth

Young people are being beaten down by Britain’s job market – again.

The number of payrolled employees under 25-years-old has plummeted by 119,000 since June 2024, meaning there are now 97,000 fewer workers under 25 on payroll than there were over half a decade ago.

Meanwhile, employers have increasingly turned to migrant workers to fill roles: the number of payrolled non-EU workers under 25-years-old soared by 315 per cent between January 2020 and December 2024, with growth highest in the sectors that would usually employ young British workers with fewer qualifications. Yet rising employment costs, artificial intelligence (AI), and welfare dysfunction now pose a triple threat to young people taking their first steps into work.

A new approach is desperately needed: one in eight 16- to 24-year-olds are not in education, employment or training (NEET) today, with profound implications for long-term life chances. Male NEETs are 10 times likelier to remain economically inactive 20 years later, by one estimate, leaving them poorer, sicker, lonelier, and more likely to die early.

Britain is failing its young people, frustrating economic growth and ballooning the benefit bill. In this report, we set out a plan for change.