On any given day, Poppy Blackman is engaged in the \u201csoul-crushing\u201d process of applying for a new job, and rarely ever hearing anything back.<\/p>\n
The 22-year-old has been unemployed since January 2025 and says she applies to an average of 50 roles a month, using one of four different CVs she has written for different types of jobs and sectors.<\/p>\n
\u201cI can\u2019t be picky with what I want to apply for,\u201d says Blackman, who lives in London. She studied fashion and art design at North Kent College but has given up on only applying within this sector.<\/p>\n
\u201cNot a day goes by when I don\u2019t apply for at least a few jobs,\u201d she says. \u201cIt does get pretty miserable after a certain amount of time, always doing the same thing, looking on the same websites, applying for similar jobs. It does get a little bit soul-crushing.\u201d<\/p>\n
Poppy Blackman: \u2018I can\u2019t be picky.\u2019 Photograph: Courtesy of Poppy Blackman<\/p>\n
Blackman\u2019s story is an increasingly common one. Official figures show youth unemployment among 18 to 24-year-olds rose to a five-year high in the final three months of 2025<\/a>. Strip out the Covid spike in 2020 and youth unemployment has hit an 11-year-high.<\/p>\n On a wider net of 16 to 24-year-olds, youth unemployment is now higher than the EU average for the first time, rising to 16.1%, the highest level including the pandemic since 2014, when the jobs market was still recovering from the financial crisis.<\/p>\n The EU average was 14.9% in the final quarter of 2025. The youth unemployment rate compares with an overall UK unemployment level of 5.2%.<\/p>\n Former MP and minister Alan Milburn, chair of the government\u2019s Young People and Work review, which is due to report in the summer, said the rise in youth unemployment posed an \u201cexistential\u201d risk for the UK and could put \u201ca generation on the scrapheap\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cThis is not a short-term phenomenon, it\u2019s a long-term one,\u201d he told the BBC. \u201cWe\u2019re seeing something dramatic changing in the labour markets.<\/p>\n \u201cForty-five per cent of 24-year-olds who are not in education, employment or training have never had a job. If you haven\u2019t had a job by 24, that entails a long-term scarring effect and you\u2019re probably then stuck in a lifetime on benefits.\u201d<\/p>\n Ashwin Prasad, who runs the UK arm of Tesco, recently warned that the UK was \u201csleepwalking into a quiet epidemic\u201d<\/a> of joblessness, with millions of people out of work and on benefits.<\/p>\n Some of this rise in joblessness is due to businesses looking to shore up costs in tougher times.<\/p>\n Martin Beck, chief economist at WPI Strategy, said: \u201cThe economy has been sluggish for a long time and that tends to hit younger people first, because if you\u2019re an employer and your demand is weak, you\u2019re probably going to freeze recruitment. You\u2019re not going to open up as many entry-level roles.\u201d<\/p>\n Economists say that while there are a number of issues contributing to the rise in young people being out of work, one big factor has been rising costs for employers.<\/p>\n \u2018You hear back from maybe 10% of applications and usually it\u2019s automated\u2019Oxford graduate Jack, 21<\/p>\n