Britain’s young people are at risk of becoming a “lost generation” if youth unemployment does not improve, a Labour peer has warned Sir Keir Starmer.
It comes after new analysis by The Guardian shows almost half of all jobs shed since Labour came to power are among the under-25s.
Unemployment in Britain has risen to the highest level in close to five years, after Office for National Statistics (ONS) data showed a higher-than-expected rise to five per cent in the three months to September.
The new figures suggest the crisis is being fuelled by a rapid drop in opportunities available to young people. As many as 46 per cent of the 170,000 jobs that disappeared since June last year are from those under the age of 25, the newspaper reports.
Former Labour education secretary David Blunkett warned the prime minister there is a possibility a whole generation would be let down by the lack of opportunity under his watch.
“I think we’ve got to get our act together. It’s a lost generation and if we don’t do something now the consequences economically, societally and personally will be devastating,” he said.
Some 948,000 young people in Britain are classified as “Neets” – not in education, employment or training – about one in eight of the 18-24 age group. Official figures released this week show 137,000 young people have been unemployed for longer than 12 months - the highest level in a decade.
Ministers are now preparing for the possibility the number of “Neets” may surge to over one million when fresh figures are released on Thursday, according to The Guardian.
At the Labour Party conference in September, chancellor Rachel Reeves launched a “youth guarantee” scheme aimed at lifting young people out of unemployment.
The programme will see all people aged 18 to 21 who have been out of work for 18 months given jobs. If young people refuse to take the jobs without a reasonable excuse, they will face sanctions such as losing their benefits.
Announcing the policy, she promised “nothing less than the abolition of long-term youth unemployment”.
Ms Reeves is set to lay out the funding for the policy in next week’s Budget. But she is facing intense scrutiny from markets and politicians alike as she looks to land on policies to fill an estimated £30bn hole in the public finances.
Shadow chancellor Mel Stride hit out at Ms Reeves, laying the blame for any “lost generation” at her feet. “Any lost generation is on the chancellor,” he said. “You don’t get more young people into work by punishing the very businesses that hire them.”
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