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From tomorrow, employers can claim £3,000 if they take on an eligible young person who has been out of work for six months. Attractions giant Merlin Entertainments – which is also participating in the Government’s Great British Summer Savings scheme – is one of the first major backers of the grant and will offer 300 jobs for young people as part of the Youth Guarantee. This comes as almost one million young people will benefit from more intensive, tailored support in jobcentres. From tomorrow (Tuesday 30 June 2026) businesses can access the new Youth Jobs Grant, which will pay £3,000 for every eligible young person they hire – helping thousands more young people take their first step on the career ladder. It is a major investment in the next generation, helping up to 60,000 people aged 18 to 24 take their first steps into work over the next three years. The grant is being...

Join HEPI, Kaplan and London Economics for a webinar on Thursday 9 July 2026, from 12pm to 1pm, launching new research on the economic costs and benefits of international students, including for the first time estimates broken down by parliamentary constituency using students’ actual residential locations. The session will explore the latest evidence on the gross and net economic impact of international students across the UK and what the findings mean for policymakers, institutions and local communities. Register now.This blog was kindly authored by Ava Doherty, an undergraduate at the University of Oxford.Following reports that 2024 and 2025 mark the worst years for UK graduates entering the job market, it’s time to address why this crisis is deepening and what policymakers must do about it.My generation was sold a simple promise: work hard, earn a degree from a ‘good university’, and employment would follow. Instead, we face a perfect storm that policymakers have largely ignored.The graduate employment crisis stems from...

Your support helps us to tell the storyFrom reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.Your support makes all the difference.Read moreA notable surge in job vacancies for...

The Independent and Yahoo will earn a commission from purchases made via links in this article. Pricing and availability are subject to change.A notable surge in job vacancies for delivery drivers, couriers, actors, entertainers, presenters and pest control officers has been seen in recent weeks, new research indicates.Overall, the UK job market saw 1.7 million adverts in June, marking a 9 per cent increase on May and an 11 per cent rise year-on-year, according to the Recruitment and Employment Confederation (Rec).The biggest regional increases were recorded in Anglesey, Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly, and Cheshire. Significant rises were also noted in agriculture, retail, and hospitality roles, which Rec suggests bodes well for summer seasonal hiring.Lorraine Laryea, Rec’s chief standards officer, said: “There is a clear uptick in firms taking action on long-held hiring plans. We do need to be careful of seasonal effects, including the two bank holidays in May and the onset of summer hiring in locations like...

More people can fit on to the top deck of a standard London bus than will be directly employed on the new Jackdaw gasfield in the North Sea, industry documents show.Only 27 direct full-time jobs would be created by Jackdaw, one of the biggest gasfields remaining in the North Sea, according to an environmental impact assessment filed publicly by its owner, Adura, a joint venture between Shell and Norway’s Equinor.The document states: “Over the lifetime of the field there would be a consistent level of employment averaging at nearly 500 jobs a year in direct, indirect and induced employment – this includes 273 direct jobs which exist on the Shearwater host installation and [an] additional 27 Jackdaw-specific jobs.”The fossil fuel industry, along with the Conservatives, Reform UK and sections of the Labour party, is lobbying Andy Burnham, the incoming prime minister, for Jackdaw and Rosebank, an oilfield west of Shetland, to be given the go-ahead.On Thursday some media reports suggested...

9. Data sources and quality Data source and collectionThe data for this release come from HM Revenue and Customs’ (HMRC’s) Pay As You Earn (PAYE) Real Time Information (RTI) system. They cover the whole population rather than a sample of people or companies, and they will allow for more detailed estimates of the population. More information on the quality of the data and the steps we take to quality assure it can be found in our Quality assurance of administrative data used in earnings and employment from PAYE RTI methodology.Our statistical practice is regulated by the Office for Statistics Regulation (OSR). The OSR sets the standards of trustworthiness, quality and value in the...

AI usage is measured in "tokens", which are small chunks of text that AI systems use to understand, analyse and generate language. On average, one token is roughly equivalent to three-quarters of an English word.There have been astonishing increases in AI use in 2026, and the increase in token use has vastly outweighed the declining “per token cost”.The world's top companies that are using AI had deployed "token leaderboards" to try to get their employees to create as much gain in productivity as possible from the most advanced models.Trillions, and sometimes thousands of trillions of tokens (quadrillions) have been used over the past few months primarily for “agentic use”, which is for agents that can perform tasks automatically. The problem here is that incredible bills were racked up, so much so that many of those companies have now begun to ration the use of these models.This is important. It might show that there are limits to how much work could...

South Africans working from home are increasingly finding themselves employed not by companies in Johannesburg or Cape Town, but by businesses thousands of kilometres away in the UK. And for local job seekers, the trend could mean access to better-paying opportunities without having to leave South Africa. Job Crystal CEO Sasha Knott says the recruitment company is seeing growing demand from international businesses looking to hire South Africans to work remotely. “We're finding more and more are working for international companies,” Knott said. She said the trend was particularly noticeable among UK businesses hiring South Africans, and the opportunities were no longer confined to the technology sector. “We find it in finance, sales, marketing; a whole range of different industries and different kinds of jobs where people are working from home remotely.” RELATED: More global employers recruiting South Africans as skills shortages growWhy UK companies are hiring South Africans For international employers, South Africa offers an attractive combination: skilled and educated workers at a lower cost...

Expanding Heathrow airport will take thousands of jobs from other regions of the UK, including almost 10,000 from the West Midlands alone, according to an analysis of the government’s own forecasts.An economic paper published by the Department for Transport last month shows that airports in England and Wales are likely to lose millions of passengers if Heathrow builds a third runway, in a significant blow to regional jobs.Birmingham airport alone is set to lose out on 7.5 million passengers a year by 2050 – a decrease that equates to about 9,500 jobs foregone at the airport and in its supply chain, according to economists.The findings could cast further doubt over the political support for the expansion, a little over a week after Andy Burnham became prime minister.The previous chancellor, Rachel Reeves, was a vocal champion of the plans for a third runway; while Burnham has said too much infrastructure spend goes on the south of England and has promised to...