{"id":84578,"date":"2025-08-21T09:06:07","date_gmt":"2025-08-21T09:06:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/84578\/"},"modified":"2025-08-21T09:06:07","modified_gmt":"2025-08-21T09:06:07","slug":"mountain-to-climb-how-labour-is-facing-a-crisis-in-youth-unemployment-unemployment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/84578\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Mountain to climb\u2019: how Labour is facing a crisis in youth unemployment | Unemployment"},"content":{"rendered":"

Getting started in the world of work was not easy for Rose Green. Having experienced half a dozen children\u2019s homes from the age of 13, while growing up in care in north London<\/a>, finding a career was the last thing on her mind.<\/p>\n

\u201cHaving that corporate parenting, it can be difficult,\u201d she says. \u201cSometimes things like completing school, or uni, you\u2019re faced with so much trauma that you haven\u2019t really got the time to finish all of that.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019re kind of parenting yourself, raising yourself. But you\u2019re a child. You\u2019re just cracking on doing what you think you\u2019re supposed to do. Even today, I\u2019m still figuring it out.\u201d<\/p>\n

Despite those challenges, the 26-year-old from Camden has found work as an employment and training officer at the local council. After completing a care leavers\u2019 internship, she now helps others to overcome the same hurdles.<\/p>\n

Green\u2019s work will be critical not just for the next generation but for the British economy at large, and for Keir Starmer\u2019s government, as Labour promises to fix what experts have called a crisis in youth employment<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Official figures on Thursday show that the number of young people not in education, employment or training (Neet) has leapt by more than a quarter in the past five years to reach almost 1m.<\/p>\n

In the three months to June, there were 948,000 young people aged 16 to 24 who were Neet, according to the Office for National Statistics<\/a>. The number has increased from 750,000 at the end of 2019, and by about 40,000 since Labour came to power a year ago. Care leavers are significantly more likely to be among them.<\/p>\n

The figures mean one in eight young people across the country are out of employment, education or training at a time when Britain\u2019s jobs market is cooling<\/a>, as employers grapple with higher taxes and a weak economic outlook.<\/p>\n

Liz Kendall, the work and pensions secretary, acknowledges that Labour has a \u201cmountain to climb\u201d to bring the numbers down. \u201cWe\u2019re making a start and I am absolutely determined we are going to deliver,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

Speaking at the Euston Skills Centre after meeting Green, other Camden council employment advisers, and young people in care, she said the government will extend a \u00a345m scheme of \u201ctrailblazer\u201d projects in eight English mayoral authorities to support young adults to find work.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe cannot have a generation of young people denied the opportunities they need,\u201d Kendall said. \u201cIt\u2019s not good for them and it\u2019s terrible for the country as well \u2026 it doesn\u2019t have to be that way.\u201d<\/p>\n

The scheme was launched this spring, with one year of funding. Kendall says the extension until spring 2027 will provide additional resources for the programme, which provides tailored job support. The schemes in London and Liverpool are focused on supporting care leavers.<\/p>\n

Other locations with trailblazers include the West Midlands, the Tees Valley, the East Midlands, the West of England<\/a> combined authority and the Cambridgeshire and Peterborough combined authority.<\/p>\n

However, while ministers have promised a \u201cyouth guarantee<\/a>\u201d, offering every young person access to education or training to help them find work, Labour has faced rising criticism that its other policies have had a chilling impact on the jobs market.<\/p>\n

Official figures show that unemployment has risen since Rachel Reeves\u2019s \u00a325bn rise in employer national insurance contributions (NICs) and increase in the \u201cnational living wage\u201d. Job vacancies in hospitality, retail and summer work \u2013 typically filled by younger adults \u2013 have also fallen sharply.<\/p>\n

Kendall has faced intense criticism. On the right of politics, the work and pensions secretary is under fire for the number of universal credit claimants hitting 8 million. From within her own party, and among charities and campaigners, the government has been warned that \u201chuge swathes\u201d of severely disabled people will be hit<\/a> by planned cuts to benefits, despite the high-profile U-turn<\/a> on other changes to disability support.<\/p>\n

With a tough autumn budget looming, Reeves is under pressure to cover a multibillion-pound shortfall in the government finances, in part exposed by Labour\u2019s retreat on planned disability benefit cuts.<\/p>\n

Despite offering a fresh \u00a345m for eight youth trailblazer schemes, are the government\u2019s other changes not pushing in the opposite direction? And might the work and pensions secretary be pressed to make further savings?<\/p>\n

Kendall is defiant. \u201cI am under no illusions about the scale of the task. And you can\u2019t just flick a switch and put right a decade of stagnant growth and poor support.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut we are putting this in place. It is making a difference to real people. And I will shout that from the rooftops.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Getting started in the world of work was not easy for Rose Green. Having experienced half a dozen…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":84579,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[64,63,99,180],"class_list":{"0":"post-84578","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-jobs","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-business","11":"tag-jobs"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84578","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=84578"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84578\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/84579"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=84578"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=84578"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=84578"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}