Remember the young ones: Improving career opportunities for Britain’s young people

A long period without work at a young age can have a long-lasting effect on a person’s life chances, leading to a higher future likelihood of unemployment and lower future earnings. For this reason, UK policymakers should be particularly worried about the present level of youth unemployment. There are currently 868,000 young people aged 16–24 unemployed in the UK (580,000 if those in full-time education are excluded) and 247,000 of them have been looking for work for over a year. A study in 2013 found that around 700,000 young people are workless and have never had a job, and almost 1 million are classified as not in education, employment or training (‘NEET’).

While the last six or seven years have been particularly tough for the latest generation of young people, even before the financial crisis many of those entering the labour market for the first time were struggling to compete with older workers for jobs. In 2007, even if full-time students were excluded, someone aged 16–24 was more than three and a half times more likely to be unemployed than a person aged 25 and over – a ratio that was little changed at the beginning of 2014. It is unlikely, therefore, that even a full-blown economic recovery will solve the problem of youth unemployment in the UK.

The last Labour government and the Coalition have introduced a number of measures to tackle the youth unemployment problem, but too often these measures have not focused on the underlying causes of a tougher transition from education to employment. Perhaps they have failed to grasp the extent of the problem, or they have not had the imagination to come up with better solutions. More likely, though, the problem is one of cost. Despite declaring a reduction in youth unemployment to be a priority, neither Labour nor the Coalition has been prepared to make available significant additional resources to tackle it.

Analysis of the experience of young people across Europe shows how a strong workplace-based vocational education and training system, with high employer involvement, contributes more to a smoother transition from education to work and a lower rate of youth unemployment than anything else. In this respect, the UK system is some way from being the best in Europe. Improving this system, and increasing young people’s engagement with it, should be priorities.