Latest policy insights on youth employment and voting from Youth Employment UK Policy and Research Director, Rupal Patel.
This week the ONS released the latest labour market overview. As we compare this quarter to last month’s data release, it appears that employment figures are on the rise for young people with an increase of 0.5% and 50.4% overall. Similarly, those that are economically inactive dropped by 0.8% sitting at 42%. However, quarterly change estimates from the Labour Force Survey (LFS) are particularly volatile and therefore should be treated with caution. We need to step back and look at the overall trend.
In the last year, there has been an alarming increase in the number of young people who are economically inactive, those who are not looking for or not available to work. Figures show that this number has risen by nearly 100,000 over the past year. Additionally, a further 56,000 people aged between 16 and 24 have now been out of work for six months or more compared with one year ago. As we explored in an article last month, this group of young people is a big concern since those who are economically inactive are not available and often not getting support to engage with the labour market and are inevitably harder to reach with targeted support.
The unemployment rate for 16 to 24 year olds was 13.0%. This is up from 11.3% from the year before. Alarmingly, young people are also more likely to be unemployed compared to those aged 25+. The rate for those aged 25 to 49 was 3.4%. For those aged 50 and over it is 2.7%. This is a stark difference with 540,000 young people who are currently unemployed. Whilst this group of young people are usually in some form of employment support system and actively seeking or being supported to seek employment, the increase means there’s more pressure on the system to provide this support.
We know there could be a number of reasons for this rising unemployment rate, for example a lack of skills needed for work, lack of appropriate qualifications, gaps between education and employment, employers perception of young people and mental ill health to name a few. In our 2023 Youth Voice Census, we heard just 4 in 10 young people felt confident they were prepared to start employment and similarly 4 in 10 also think they understand the skills employers are looking for, a reduction in confidence of 12 ppts on last year’s scores. We also know from the 2023 youth voice census that mental health challenges such as anxiety and depression were a key factor in holding young people back from employment.
Taking into consideration the complex reasons contributing to youth unemployment, varied support is required to reverse this rising unemployment and inactivity trend. Thus, a commitment to collaborative working from educators, employers, health professionals and policy makers is paramount. Here at Youth Employment UK, we understand this complexity and it is our core mission to use our expertise to help tackle these issues. We do this in a number of key ways:
- Our Young Professional Programmes are a set of free courses aimed at 14-24 year olds which aim to develop their confidence and skills as they navigate their next steps. With four courses in total, young people can choose a course that suits their needs, and they can be completed at their own pace. To begin, a young person simply needs to create an account on our website, and can then get started.
- Our Membership provides employers with advice and guidance on how to support those young people with additional and sometimes complex needs into good quality opportunities, helping employers build early careers programmes that support diversity, inclusion alongside recruitment and retention.
- Working with both young people and employers we are well placed to support further evidence and research and work with policy makers to help them understand what system change is needed to achieve full employment. This year is a big year politically and it is important that youth employment is high on the agenda.
