Employers’ biggest complaint about young people is their ‘work readiness’, Milburn continues, emphasising the importance of work experience.
He tells Radio 4:
Just a few days ago, we were talking to Marks and Spencers, to John Lewis, to all of these employers. And the biggest complaint that people have is about what work readiness.
They know that the young people have got qualifications. What they worry more about is whether schools have gifted them the attributes that are needed for the workplace. And that is all about communication, collaboration, agility, adaptability, skills.
We do badly internationally when it comes to work experience. We’ve got to change it.
Milburn is due to release recommendations to fix the Neets crisis in the autumn. That could potentially include compulsary work experience for young people, as the boss of Amazon UK called for this week.
Milburn: UK's 'chronic' Neets problem is worse than other countries
Q: Is the Neets problem worse in the UK than in other countries?
Yes it is, Alan Milburn replies.
The UK’s Neets rate is three times as high as in Holland, and twice as high as Ireland, he says. Britain has moved down the international league table in recent times.
He calls it a “chronic problem” that is getting worse not better, with no plan to deal with it.
Young people are caught in a “perfect storm”, he continues, where the first rung on the career ladder is further out of reach for them.
The number of jobs in low and medium-skilled occupations have declined by over a million over the last 20 years. Apprenticeship starts are down by about a third in the last ten years, and the Saturday job has disappeared, Milburn points out.
That’s compounded by a welfare system created to deal with “yesterday’s problem” of cyclical youth unemployment. Today, the challenge is “youth detachment”, he adds.
As Milburn puts it:
People always talk about welfare and they’re right to do so. But this is a problem in the labour market, in the welfare system, in the school system, in the skills system and in the health system.
It’s not reforms that you need. It’s a radical reset.
Milburn: the silence kills hopes for Neets
Alan Milburn is discussing his new report into the Neet crisis now, on Radio 4’s Today Programme.
Milburn emphasisis that the UK risks a “lost generation” of young people out of work, training or education, with many being rebuffed when they apply for work, or never even hear back.
Milburn says:
It’s the silence that kills, it dents confidence. But more importantly, it kills hope.
He adds that 84% of the Neets his team surveyed actually want to be in work or training :
There’s no shortage of effort on their part. Now the shortage is of opportunity and of support.
Updated
New data from Zoopla this morning highlights the affortability challenges facing first-time buyers, showing:
First-time buyers are targeting homes worth £10,000 more than a year ago, with average prices up 4.3% to £254,750 — nearly 3x the rate of UK house price growth
There are 6% fewer first time buyers in the market than this time last year.
Milburn correct to reject “lazy tropes” around youth unemployment
Economists have been welcoming Alan Milburn’s report into the UK’s Neets crisis, even before its official launch later today.
George Bangham, head of social policy at the New Economics Foundation (NEF), has said Milburn is correct to reject the “lazy tropes” about this problem somehow being young people’s own responsibility, adding:
“Most young people want to work, but too few jobs are available to them in many local areas, as NEF research has shown. Job vacancies are at their lowest level in 12 years, outside of the pandemic lockdowns – and young people are struggling more than others to land the few jobs available.
The Resolution Foundation thinktank says Milburn is correct to identify “rising ill health, limited vocational education, a hands-off benefits system, and a weak labour market” as key drivers of the UK’s NEET rate.
Lindsay Judge, research director at the Resolution Foundation said:
“It is encouraging to see how strongly the Milburn Review’s interim report recognises the gravity of the UK’s Neets crisis. Our ambition should be that the UK becomes one of Europe’s lowest Neet countries rather than one of its highest.
“The report has grasped the key drivers of the UK’s high Neet rate, and the steps needed to tackle these: more engaged employment support, early intervention on mental health, and a greater focus on further education.
“But there are real fiscal and structural challenges ahead. There is no single system currently in place to solve this crisis, so the Government will need to develop a new approach that spans government departments as well as regional and local authorities, plus find the funding to truly turn the Neets crisis around.”
First-time buyers facing toughest challenge since financial crisis
UK home ownership is increasingly out of reach for young people, David Thomas, the outgoing chief executive of Barratt Redrow is warning today.
In an interview with the BBC, Thomas says that now is one of the most difficult times to get on to the housing ladder, comparable only with the aftermath of the financial crisis in 2008.
Thomas blamed rising interest rates, student loan deductions and the squeeze on real wages for making it harder to buy a new home in 2026, saying:
Certainly it’s going to be close to where we were [after] the great financial crisis.
That was probably more to do with lending, but I think it’s very, very comparable for first-time buyers. We’re now facing challenges around affordability with no government support scheme in place.
Updated
Introduction: UK risks ‘lost generation’ without more jobs for young people
Good morning, and welcome to our rolling coverage of business, the financial markets and the world economy.
Younger people in the UK are facing a double whammy of economic pain – with rising numbers no longer in education, employment or training, and an increasingly tough battle to get onto the housing ladder.
Alan Milburn, the former health secretary, is publishing an important review into why so many young people in Britain are economically inactive – it warns that one in six young people (or 1.25 million) could not be in education, employment or training within five years unless “urgent” action is taken.
Milburn, who has been looking at the problem for months, will pin the blame firmly on the system rather than young people themselves.
He’s expected to say:
“This is not a failure of young people. It is a failure of a system stuck in the past. Whether it is education or health or welfare, that system fails to enable their participation in the labour market.
“Instead, all too often it ends up putting young people on a path to a life not in jobs but on benefits. This should be the priority for the government. It should be the priority for all of us.”
To tackle the risk of a “lost generation”, Milburn is pushing for employers to be given more incentives to take on young people. That would give them a leg-up into the world of work, dodging the “Catch-22” situation where employers ask for work experience before giving someone a job.
The Milburn review will also make the case for reforming health and disability benefits, arguing that the welfare state is “exacerbating inactivity”.
Another factor is the decline of the “Saturday job”, following a drop in entry-level jobs and opportunities in hospitality, leisure and retail, and a fall in apprenticeship starts over the last 10 years.
New data this morning will show if the Neets crisis is getting worse, as my colleague Richard Partington explains:
Experts have warned of a crisis in youth jobs, with official figures due on Thursday expected to show the number of young people not in education, employment or training (Neet) is close to breaking through a million – the highest level for more than a decade.
Milburn will warn that without urgent action the number could continue rising from one in eight young people who are classified as Neet to one in six within five years – representing 1.25 million young lives.
Young people who manage to overcome the barriers of unemployment still find it very hard to buy a house.
David Thomas, the outgoing chief executive of Barratt Redrow, has warned that first-time buyers are facing one of the most difficult times to purchase a home, due to affordability challenges (more on this shortly….).
The agenda
9.30am BST: Latest quarterly estimates for young people (aged 16 to 24 years) who are not in education, employment or training (Neet) in the UK
10.30am BST: Former Health Minister Alan Milburn to hold press conference on his review of the Neets crisis
1.30pm US PCE inflation report for April
Updated
