Can we talk about NEETs?

[MrsBennetsPoorNervesAreBack]

Sorry if there's a thread already and I've missed it. But I want to talk about NEETs.

Apparently, we are potentially going to have 1.25million young people not in employment, education or training by the early 2030s. This is quite an alarming number, and it feels like we're failing an entire generation - both the NEETs themselves, who don't seem to have very much going on in their lives that might give them a sense of satisfaction or achievement, but also their working peers who will presumably end up having to support them via the tax system.

I really don't want this to be a thread with lots of judgement or criticism of these young people - it seems to me that we must have failed them somehow as a society. I also want to steer clear of party politics if we can. But I really want to understand why we have so many young people in this position right now.

Does anyone have a child in this situation who would be willing to share why they find themselves in this position? What are the barriers to them studying or getting at least a part time job? Are they happy with how things are right now? Are they trying to change their situation? What do they actually do all day? Are they surrounded by friends who are in the same position? What do they do about money? And what do you feel about the whole situation as a parent?

If anyone is willing to share, I really hope we can avoid a pile-on in which the young people and/or their parents are subjected to a character assassination. I would like an honest and frank exchange of views and experiences because I do genuinely want to understand the root causes of this issue, but if it descends into blame and fingerpointing, then the whole conversation will get derailed.

For full disclosure, I do have a dc in the middle of the 16-24 age group, but neither she nor any of her friends fall into this category.

My large school has limited access to the first two and we have pastoral staff. Increasing expectations heaped on to classroom teachers and SLT to do complex pastoral care alongside academics. Never seen any art therapists!

And school nurses are a thing of the past too.

It really is very worrying. My DD is at university and has been trying to get a summer job - over 80 applications and not one interview. She has 3 A’s at A Level, 3yrs experience of agency work which is obviously sporadic but experience in waitressing, FOH, events etc and a full driving licence yet can’t even get an interview for 8hrs a week temp job at a local shop. She isn’t averse to volunteering at all to build her CV but really needed to earn some money this summer to help through Y2 at uni. I am seriously concerned for what will happen when she finishes her degree

So glad that the whole issue of NEETs is getting attention. I suppose it was easy to ignore when it was only 985,000. But now that it's risen to over a million, hopefully the government will wake up and put together a programme to tackle it. Our whole future as a country is on the line.

Yes, it's a crazy situation. We really are in deep trouble.

A few reasons.

Firstly, there are now laws/regulations and some councils require potential employers to make a formal request to allow a school age child to work, which I think requires approval of the head teacher. Even for simple jobs like paper delivery!

Secondly, the H&S regulations place lots of restrictions on school age children, i.e. not allowed to work before x am, or after y pm, not allowed to work in kitchens, etc.

Thirdly, there are only a fraction of the number of small businesses that there used to be a few decades ago. Very few small shops who'd want a "Saturday" girl, very few small guest houses who'd want youngster to help with changeover day on Saturday, virtually no milk delivery or paper delivery businesses anymore, supermarkets don't use "kids" to deliver offer leaflets house to house anymore, etc etc. The big firms like large supermarket chains, large hotel chains, large restaurant chains, Amazon warehouses won't be employing school kids in the same way that small private businesses used to do before they all closed down!

The first paragraph of this has actually existed for years. I did that 20 years ago. A lot of employers ignored it, though.

That’s spot on.
plus self check outs and differing shift patterns now mean you don’t have weekend and week workers.

under 18’s can’t authorise alcohol and cigarettes so have been replaced by the self check outs.

This is so concerning. When people said a jobs tax would hit SMEs and increase youth unemployment why didn’t anyone listen?

Stressful for anyone with dc looking for work.

BBC News - How a borough in Merseyside is bucking the UK's youth unemployment trend - BBC News
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cd6p9yyg64vo

What? They didn’t achieve that by cutting benefits and ignoring mental health illnesses, but through early support, interventions and policies with a long term view? Colour me surprised!

Yeah, who would have thought it!

What’s a jobs tax?
Do you mean the higher NI contribution?

this was a massive issue way before Labour came into power

Straight after the pandemic if youd asked every business owner if they would support an NI increase theyd have all said yes.
How quickly they forgot the bounce back loans etc

3 million didn't get the grants, and the "loans" had to be paid back, unlike employees lucky enough to get furlough which didn't have to be paid back!

Anyway, many small businesses havn't survived the disastrous impact of covid, which has contributed to the empty High Streets, closures of pubs & restaurants etc. When there are fewer small businesses, then it's no surprise there are fewer places that could employ young people!

Not just the increase in NIC rate, it was the reduction in the starting threshold which dragged lots of lower paid part time employees into the scope of the employer being liable for NIC. It's a part of Reeves changes that didn't get much media coverage but has had a massive impact, potentially more than the rate hike, on employing young people, especially part time, such as typical jobs alongside school or university, which previously would have been completely outside the scope of employers NIC.

They were higher. Liz truss brought them down against the IMFs recommendations. Rachel reeves just put them back.

Employers NIC had never been as high as Reeve's 15% and the lower threshold "starting point" wasn't as low.

In 2024 there were 872,000 to 987,000 NEETs
it certainly won’t have helped, but that number was huge and ignored before

Sorry I’d added the higher rate into it. No you’re right. I’ve a vague recollection it’s been high before in thatchers time, doubtful it kicked in as early though

It was "Only" 10% during the Thatcher years and then started be increased under Brown/Blair, but never more than 13.8%, the rate it was before Reeves increased it to 15%.

I've recently changed jobs, but I used to work for a company that had a lot of entry-level roles, and we targeted school leavers and had applications from mostly younger adults. The big thing for me, was how shy and anxious a lot were, barely speaking, one word answers, looking at the floor the entire interview, the "gen z stare", we had parents come to interviews, this was all incredibly common.

There are obviously mental health issues for some, but the biggest thing I always used to think, was how little some of them talked to adults outside of school/college, you can order takeaway on your phone, dont need to go into a shop, same for banking, supermarkets self scan etc, so when they came into an interview for a lot it often seemed to be a new scary thing talking to an adult stranger for a sustained amount of time and many did not seem to be able to. I don't know how you can fix that, as that is the way of life now.

Even worse now that work from home is so common as even the youngsters with jobs don't "need" to speak to their colleagues in person as they can just ping messages and emails to each other.

It always used to be the workplace where the "shy" unconfident youngsters "grew up" by being surrounded by adults, but now a combination of no jobs and WFH jobs mean they don't develop as quickly (if at all).

Most households benefit from the conditions which mean a lot of starter jobs or local jobs for life have gone though.

This household included. Many people want to WFH which is great with a well established career and a nice laptop job. But does remove the office service, commuting, lunch, local supplies jobs.

Many look for the best price online, very few would buy the same vacuum cleaner from a UK manufacturer for x3 the price.

Even local post delivery offices, who uses the post nowadays? Essential stuff only.

We have teens this is a concern but we are aware that some of our choices have helped things get this bad. And with the COL more people spending on just the essentials, job insecurity across the board, fewer people moving jobs because they can’t or don’t want to risk it right now, older workers unable to retire. It’s easy to see how when things get squeezed that the ones who are at the most disadvantaged are the ones without jobs to start with.

But we can’t spiral into a pit of despair- we as a household will have to try and figure something out.

Our eldest was asking a while back how do I just seem able to make “small talk” with people out and about, so we had a chat and he started practicing, bit hit and miss at first but you have to start somewhere. It felt like he sort of knew he had to get better at it.