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A shock government-backed report this week warned of the danger of a “lost generation” of young people in Britain, as the number of 16- to 24-year-olds not in education, employment or training (Neets) rose to more than 1 million.According to official UK statistics, roughly 13.5% of young people are not in work or college. Among 18- to 24-year-olds the share rises to 15.8% – nearly one in six.In the Netherlands, the equivalent figure has been below 5% for well over a decade. According to Eurostat, whose wider 15-29 age bracket produces a higher figure, the Dutch Neet rate was 5.3% last year.The Resolution Foundation concluded in a recent report that if Britain could match the Dutch Neet rate, 600,000 more 18- to 24-year-olds would be learning or earning today.Alan Milburn, the former Labour cabinet minister who authored the review, said Britain might not be able to copy directly from the Netherlands because traditions, cultures and structures were different. “But boy...

New placements announced as Government accelerates its Youth Guarantee to give every young person the chance to earn or learn. Expansion of support will help thousands more young people gain hands-on experience, build skills and move into work over the next three years. Move comes after Alan Milburn’s interim report into youth unemployment highlighted the vital importance of work experience. Young people across the country will be helped onto the career ladder thanks to the creation of 300,000 new work experience and training placements in sectors including construction, health and social care and hospitality. The new placements, part of a £2.5 billion youth employment support package, will see young people gain hands-on experience, build real skills and move into sustained work. They come as the Government accelerates its Youth Guarantee to give every young person the chance to earn or learn and reverse the rising numbers not in education, employment, or training (NEET) - currently...

Last updated: 01 Jun. 2026 The UK’s net zero economy now underpins the jobs of 1.1 million UK workers, who together generate £105 billion in Gross Value Added (GVA) for the UK economy, a new report commissioned by the Energy and Climate Intelligence Unit (ECIU) with analysis provided by the independent consultancy CBI Economics and The Data City, has found. [1]  From solar panel installers to electric car production line engineers, these workers generate £119,300 in economic value per full-time job, around 1.5 times the national average – against the backdrop of the UK’s wider productivity stagnation. This leads to higher wages, with net zero jobs earning £43,142, 11% higher than the current national average of £39,039. This, the fourth annual report on the scale and nature of the UK’s net zero economy, found 22,700 small firms (employing less than 50 people) and six ‘billion-pound’ economic hotspots spread across the UK including in Scottish Central Belt, West and North Yorkshire, and North Wales and...

woman walking through market By Amily Xu, Business School, MSc International Tourism, Management and Marketing graduate, Amily Xu, reflects on her experience of studying and working in the UK and recently gaining indefinite leave to remain here.   When I graduated, there was no graduate visa which meant I had just 6 months to find a visa sponsored job. When I joined the course, I discovered there was an integrated career development programme which provided weekly timetabled careers session to increase my employability skills. These included sessions on CV writing, personal branding using LinkedIn and a range of other careers topics. I was introduced to the Business School Postgraduate Careers team and all the support and resources they provide. I was later supported on a one-to-one basis by Teresa, one of the Careers Consultants teaching the programme. The weekly sessions provided the tools I needed to evaluate and understand myself as well as practical employability skills like CV writing and interview preparation and practice. I...

More support to get young people into their first jobs through launch of new partnership to reshape entry-level jobs in sectors exposed to AI 400,000 young people across the most disadvantaged schools in the UK will get AI and tech training to help them into further education, training and employment after school New AI bootcamps scheme to be rolled out nationwide in England starting with a pilot in the North West this summer Young people entering the job market will be better supported into their first roles thanks to a new partnership between government, industry and trade unions to look at how AI is impacting entry level roles. The Early Careers Jobs Alliance will bring together government, employers, trade unions and young people, co-chaired by Prospect’s General Secretary Mike Clancy and the government’s AI Champion for the Digital and Technologies sector, Katie Gallagher OBE. With the aim of supporting people to get into the workplace, learn on the job...

Theresa Blair, 24, from Birmingham, graduated from Aston University in 2025 with a pharmacy masters.But following a project management placement she decided this was the career path she wanted to pursue.She spent eight months sending off hundreds of job applications often not hearing back."I realised I was sending very generic CVs to recruiters and that was making it harder to stand out from other applicants," she says.She began tailoring her CV to suit every job, reading into each company's values and referencing them in her applications. "I've learnt that you should state the skills you've gained because of doing certain roles and explain how that makes you a suitable candidate," she says.She applied for fewer jobs but spent more time on each one. "The less generic the better," she says.Theresa got a job working full time in a bank customer service call centre. Now she works as a project manager commuting three days a week to London."It's two to three...

Keir Starmer has announced a new AI work assistant tool dubbed a “job centre in your pocket” to help job seekers get into work.In a speech at the start of London Tech Week, the prime minister said the new AI job tool will “help those out of work find the right jobs, create their CVs and get back into work”.The 24/7 AI assistant will be trialled for three months online.We would like to hear from young people who have used this new tool. How did you find it? Did it help in your efforts to find work?Share your experiencePlease get in touch by using the form below or by messaging us. We will be in touch before we take your submission further. Your responses, which can be anonymous, are secure as the form is encrypted and only the Guardian has access to your contributions. We will only use the data you provide us for the purpose of the feature and we...

Companies in the UK continue to hold back on permanent hiring as cost pressures and market uncertainty shake employer confidence. Last month, permanent placements declined at the sharpest rate since July, according to the UK Report on Jobs, a monthly report by KPMG UK and the Recruitment and Employment Confederation. The report’s main hiring measure — the Permanent Placements Index — dropped from 47.5 in April to 44.1 in May, falling further below the neutral level of 50. Employers are finding more steady footing in short-term contracts to plug staffing gaps. Temporary work rose at the highest rate in over three years, as the report’s Temporary Billings Index climbed from 50.4 in April to 52.2 in May. The survey, compiled by S&P Global, relies on responses from about 400 UK recruitment and employment consultancies from 12 May to 22 May. A more pronounced drop in permanent job opportunities pushed demand for temporary staff, according to the report. “Businesses need stability to plan and confidence to...

Landmark partnership between LinkedIn and the Government reflects that the ‘job for life’ has given way to career mobility. Anonymised data from LinkedIn’s pool of 40 million UK accounts will help the DWP have the best possible data within the Jobs and Careers Service.  This comes as government brings forward the biggest employment reforms in a generation with a particular focus on helping young people into work.    Thousands of jobseekers could be supported into a new career as the government joins forces with LinkedIn to bolster careers advice.  It will see timely anonymised data on jobs, skills, hiring and workforce movement shared with Skills England from LinkedIn’s network of 40 million UK accounts, giving the government a new way of viewing the labour market.  In the future this could be used by the new Jobs and Careers...

On the face of it, the latest UK jobs report doesn’t look so bad. The unemployment rate ticked down to 4.9%. Payrolled employment rose after three consecutive monthly declines (it increased by a marginal 2,000 workers). Average weekly earnings growth was higher than expected. But the details still look dovish for the Bank of England. And the report is another reminder that the case for higher rates is far from clear-cut. Take those payroll numbers. April’s atrocious 100,000 fall in employment has been cut in half, after revisions. That’s not a surprise; the latest reading is always prone to change – and usually in an upwards direction. But the newly revised April figure, showing a 53k drop in workers, is still pretty bad. The better May figure should be read in that context – and if you strip out government, private sector payrolls still fell. What’s more, April’s upgrade doesn’t appear to have lifted the consumer-facing industries which have been at the eye...