Nearly 1m young people out of work

Jobs are so few and far between for young people now.
DiL applies for loads. She has retail and bar experience. Excellent references . Done extra courses to help her. She's only got a 12hr a week job but better than nothing. It's hard as she doesn't drive yet.
But there's also many young people who don't want to work in fast food or a cleaning job or whatever is available as it's easier to get money for free
Eldest DS was lucky he worked in hospitality from age 14 on £20 a day for 9 -4pm clearing tables and emptying bins. Was pittance and most teen boys wouldn't get out of bed for that - but he wanted to earn. That gave him experience then at 18 got another job for £10ph which wasn't bad for his age for 30 hours a week.
He's just got another job which is more local, 10 min drive , free parking and £28k - 30 hours a week at age 19.

His df could have employed him but ds wanted to try for himself first rather than be handed on a plate. But would have probably accepted of needed.
Our dcs are all fortunate that their df can employ them if it was needed doing admin / general roles or an apprenticeship if they want to go into the trade

Source/data, please.

Thanks

The term ‘disabled’ is a survey term used by the ons. It does not mean that these neets fall under the benefits definition of being unable to work.

Yes we do and we have more success via that route, but we're quite a niche area of consultancy/engineering and so there isn't actually a decent college course that matches - but we make do!

Someone else up thread asked about transport - and I should also add that they can have a company car on salary sacrifice if they want OR access to cars/hire cars (fully paid for) whenever they have to drive for work. As we do a lot of driving around for the job.

I know nobody on benefits right now, young or old (I did know some when youinger, long term unemployed, and during lockdown some people went on UC, had no choice). They are either in education or working, sometimes not in their chosen field but working. Future employers are impressed with applicants who have been doing their best so it pays off eventually.

I read every so often about people on benefits, sometimes whole families, and have seen the same on TV. The media have a field day with them.

You say this but I have 2 relatives who have 0 intention of working yet manage to convince the job center they have tried "really really" hard to find a job for many years now. Every time they reach a point where their benefits are affected they manage to find a job. They are conveniently let go or quit once they can claim full benefits again. They are constantly at the drs as their only ambition in life is to create enough fuss to eventually qualify for pip. they have absolutely nothing wrong with them but believe that if all the "foreigners" get to live here for free and don't have to work why should they. They honestly disgust me with their views. I can no longer even talk to them or try to help them towards any kind of actual job because all i'm met with is why should I work when others dont have to. They live together and all they do is feed off each other in their own little toxic world.

I dont know what the solution is as if they werent given benefits I have 0 doubt that they would just turn to crime. They 100% have the attitude of but they want/need it and why shouldn't they have it.

Yeah I agree with this up to a point

some YouTubers are poison and watching online content can be addictive to some growing minds. And social media is a bit of a wild west at the moment.

But let’s not throw out the baby with the bath water!

So online content is fun, educational, entertaining, generous and those who can use and promote this influential media in positive ways, with great content and override the AI slop do have skills and talents needed in this modern world.

Because you just wrote that you wouldn't work a low paid job that wouldn't enable you to buy a house if you were a young person. What was the alternative you envisaged?

I actually don’t know why people are so sneery about YouTubers. Some of the top YouTubers are millionaires! But even on the lower and medium rungs, it looks like you can make a good, or at least modest living. Certainly a lot of them earn more money than some office workers. As far as I can tell, even moderately successful YouTubers need to be creative, self-reliant, disciplined, come up with new ideas every week etc, as well as developing skills like filming, editing and marketing.

I know some YouTubers stop due to the pressure, and I would absolutely take it seriously if I saw it on someone’s CV.

Benefits? I claimed benefits in the 1980’s in my early 20’s when l couldn’t find a job because youth unemployment was higher than it is now. And in the holidays, because grants didn’t cover holidays and that’s what you were meant to do.
WTF has me claiming benefits got to do with anything? It was 40 fucking years ago or more.

To perhaps try and whittle down which candidates could deal with a difficult customer calmly and politely without bursting into tears and needing a week off?

As employee rights increase, job applications are going to become more sophisticated. That’s obvious - to minimise risk to the business.

Which means half that aren’t- there’s half a million there. Perhaps it would be prudent and easier to concentrate on the non-disabled half first?

We live on a global economy now with AI. The fact you wouldn't want to live like that is irrelevant. Young people have to make the best of it in the same way that previous generations have had to face war, famine etc. There is no guarantee that life and living standards will always get better. In fact history teaches us the opposite. Mourning the past is unhelpful though.

Fundamentally you share the problematic mindset I referenced upthread. It isn't worth it to you to work these low paid jobs because you know there is an alternative to claim benefits. I imagine if the alternative was instead to stave then suddenly you would find the motivation to work these jobs. Odd that!

I have an older teen who is neurodiverse, anxious, and due to a recent extremely traumatic incident has ptsd. That doesn’t stop us as parents from setting high standards. She has to function as an adult.

But dyslexia which may not affect someone’s ability to work could be a barrier to applying. Why, for example, does the Co-Op, or B&Q, need a four page online form with competency test?

There were 2.6 unemployed people per vacancy in October to December 2025. Employers can be choosy, and dyslexia, or asthma, or anxiety, or lack of experience or qualifications or no driving licence can all be used to reject a young person.

A lot of years ago I was a trustee at a charity that worked with businesses to place young people in short term roles. We part-funded the placement and I think there was a government scheme around that time. Take up on the government scheme was quite low - probably because a lot of employers imagined it to be as you have. Our model was more successful, possibly because we spent more time explaining the value to businesses and to the community, and we went for blue chip
companies who were more interested in their reputation. They were real jobs, and some of the young people stayed on or joined similar businesses. It was great to see kids - who had never even heard of some of the jobs - make a go of it. I guess a small business or even SME would struggle these days, often cut to the bone themselves and running on tight margins.

It’s hard to get a job these days. I’m in my late twenties and worked for a prestige airline abroad before my dc. Also worked as a graphic designer. Many years in customer service jobs too.

Out of my uni course, maybe a 1/4 of us actually got a job in the industry.

Ive been turned down from McDonalds (most fast food chains tbh) and even cleaning jobs. I once went to a waitress open day at a hotel chain and the queue was 5 hours in the pissing rain before you had your initial interview. Ended up getting the job in the end but it shows just how competitive it really is.

Most jobs are low wages now though. And there’s no job security either. I’m 62, l wouldn’t want to live like that either ( and l’ve worked all my life)

Low wages in the past were for low level manual jobs. Now professional staff are on shit salaries Nurses and teachers are paid very badly.

This could mean they're dyslexic or have asthma. It doesn't mean all these young people can't work.

Nearly half of NEETS are disabled.

Yes, because you know there is an alternative of claiming benefits. For years people have worked for relatively low wages and with no real prospect of owning a house. A quarter of people owned their own house after the second world war and yet this fact didn't deter that whole generation of people from working in the factories, coal mines and dirty, difficult jobs that made up our economy.

This is what I mean about entitlement. Some jobs have always been and will always be low paid. Some people will never be able to buy a house. That doesn't mean they get to sit around all day claiming benefits instead. You sound like you're part of the problem to be honest.

Are you basing this on your own thoughts or actual experience from young people? The jobs you mention - cleaning, caring - most would rather hire an adult woman than a teenager. The Telegraph at the weekend reported 4 pubs a day are closing. What ‘services’ are advertised on Facebook?

Idk what 'compulsory work placement' would entail. Which employers are expected to take on these unwilling individuals who need to be sanctioned into turning up and do a job, one they presumably have no desire to do?

They've tried things like that before and it didn't work. There aren't enough jobs for people ready and willing with decades worth of experience so forcing the bone idle into employment which will be bound to fail shouldn't really be the priority right now?

Young people just reflect the circumstances and parents who brought them up. It’s not really anyone’s fault, apart from society as a whole.

But if l was them l wouldn’t work long hours for a shit wage and no chance of buying a house either.

Why does it have to be anyone's 'fault'? It doesn't do the young people any good to exonerate them from responsibility just because they aren't totally to blame for their life circumstances. I mean all of us can blame our parents/society/anyone else for our shortcomings but ultimately it's pointless and doesn't improve future prospects for that individual or change outcomes. I mean stretching your point further, parents today that are raising children this way are the product of their own parents and how society was when they were raised. Where does it stop?

I think the government needs to start pushing compulsory schooling in virtually all cases except when there are exceptional circumstances. They simply can't oversee home education enough to guarantee that every child is getting the education they are legally entitled to. Children should be raised with an expectation that they will be a service provider and employee not merely a consumer of everyone else's effort and money. It will be unpleasant and difficult for most. Most will have jobs they don't like. That's why you're paid and it isn't a voluntary position. I just think we need some serious expectations management on what a productive life actually looks like and we need to force people to be productive for everyone's sake. It benefits us all of everyone does what they can.