The ONS have released the latest Labour Market Overview covering the months of October – December 2022.
What Does This Mean For Youth Employment?
The latest labour market overview from the Office for National Statistics reveals that there are now over one million 16-24 year olds who are not in full time education or employment (workless), the highest level since 2020. The data also shows that the proportion of young people in this ‘workless’ group who are economically inactive now accounts for 68% of this group.
Headlines for young people aged 16 – 24
In work:
| Employment rate | Employment level |
| 54.1% (↑0.1%) | 3,700,000 (↑8,000) |
Unemployment:
| Unemployment rate | Unemployment Level |
| 11.3% (↑0.2%) | 471,000 (↑10,000) |
Economically inactive:
| Economically inactive rate | Economically inactive level |
| 39.0% (↓0.3%) | 2,666,000 (↓20,000) |
Education:
| Economically inactive rate | Economically inactive level |
| 39.0% (↓0.3%) | 2,666,000 (↓20,000) |
Workless (not in full-time education or employment):
| Not in full-time education or employment | |
| 1,001,045 (↑68,000) | |
| Economically inactive (not in full-time education) |
Unemployed (not in full-time education) |
| 680,000 (↑50,000) | 320,000 (↑18,000) |
Headlines for all ages
In work:
| Employment rate | Employment Level |
| 75.6% (-) 16-64 | 32,813,000 (↑32,500) |
Unemployment:
| Unemployment rate | Unemployment Level |
| 3.7% (-) | 1,270,000 (↑25,000) |
Economically inactive:
| Economically inactive rate | Economically inactive level |
| 21.4 (↓0.1) 16-64 | 8,886,000 (↓58,500) 16-64 |
Commentary
The latest labour market overview from the Office for National Statistics reveals that there are now over one million 16-24 year olds who are not in education or employment (‘workless’), the highest level since 2020. The data also shows that the proportion of young people in this group who are economically inactive continues to grow, now accounting for 68% of all young people not in full time education or work.
Our Youth Voice Census highlights the challenges that young people have in finding and quality accessing work locally and how unprepared they feel in accessing and starting work. Coupled with the growing health and mental health crisis and rise in anxiety of young people we can start to build the picture as to why more young people are becoming economically inactive. Through our work with the APPG for Youth Employment we took the opportunity to do a deep dive into the impact of the growing mental health challenges on youth employment and our report tells a worrying story.
Young people in work are struggling too, regular pay continues to fall in real terms (adjusted for inflation), down by 2.5%, adding further pressure on young people who are often amongst the lowest paid.
The government must be committed to putting in place whole system change that tackles the root causes of youth unemployment and economic inactivity otherwise the workless figure of 1 million today will continue to grow.
CEO, Laura-Jane Rawlings:
“Whilst there is an opportunity today to celebrate some of the positive movements in the labour market including the fact that 8,000 more young people are in employment, we cannot lose sight of the now 1 million young people not in full time education and not in employment. We are hearing loudly from young people about the challenges they face including mental health, discrimination and access to opportunity. These are issues that need bold and decisive action from national and local governments and employers. Without this action young people will continue to struggle through one employment crisis to the next.”
