Alan Milburn's damning youth employment report exposes 'snowflake' myth - Jayne Dowle

As part of his research, Milburn visited my own town of Barnsley in South Yorkshire last year to find out about the impressive Pathways to Work programme, one of nine “inactivity trailblazers” across the country receiving a share of £125m to help bring employment, health and skills support together.

“Barnsley and South Yorkshire are leading the way on this agenda,” Mr Milburn told The Yorkshire Post. “Economic inactivity was pretty low on the agenda a year ago and today it is top of the agenda.”

Labour’s former council leader Sir Stephen Houghton was passionate about Pathways to Work and really believed it could make a difference. What will happen now to the prospects of “left-behind” young people, and others in long-term unemployment here remains to be seen. Although Sir Stephen hung onto his seat, Reform UK took over the council at the local elections in May.

Meanwhile, it’s about time people realised that Milburn is correct when he calls out the “myth” of today’s young people being a so-called “snowflake generation”, who don’t want to get off their phones and get a job.

The lack of opportunities to find work, from Saturday jobs to entry level positions, is starving young people of experience. Meanwhile, the failure of joined up policy making to support them contributes to this desert; increases in the minimum wage and employers’ National Insurance contributions are key ‘improvements’ which are having a reverse effect on employing young people.

It’s all very well certain members of the older generation waxing lyrical about “back in my day” when they got up before dawn to deliver newspapers or spent their weekends sweeping up and making coffees in a local hair salon, or mucking out horses, or a myriad of other activities that brought a bit of pocket money and even more valuable first steps into the world of work.

As Milburn says, “I think the fundamental problem they have is that the opportunities, that we all took for granted, are just not around in the same way. It exacts a very high price on them, and a very high price on our economy and our society, and we’d better do something about it.”

If you’re under 16 these days you’ll struggle to find any kind of part-time work at all, certainly with a legitimate employer. Even at 16-plus it’s hard to find roles in hospitality, for instance, because of modern legislation forbidding under-18s from serving alcohol. In addition, the economic climate is not supportive; vacancies in the hospitality sector have halved in the past four years, the report finds.

And every jobseeker, whatever their age - as Milburn highlights - is now subject to undertaking online applications, which all too often disappear into the ether with not so much as an acknowledgement.

He says that the “most consistent complaint” by young people unsuccessfully applying for jobs is “not rejection but silence”. Recruitment for even low-skilled and entry-level roles has become much more formalised and remote, he’s found too.

Multi-stage online recruitment processes are increasingly being used for jobs that require little or no formal qualifications. A basic warehouse or retail role may now face a process “more like professional recruitment than first-job hiring.”

Try applying for a job as a supermarket shelf-stacker and you’ll see what this means. You’ll be expected to imagine yourself in a number of “customer-facing” scenarios and tick boxes to show how you would react.

Very few 16-year-olds know all the right answers to this kind of questioning. I’ll admit, when my own teenage son applied for his own supermarket job I helped him with the tick boxes.

But not every parent is willing or able to do this. And constant rejection leads to profound disillusionment and dejection; ask someone who has actually left school and college with exam passes, achieved a good degree and is still searching for a job. They are technically ‘NEETs’ too.

Milburn, who served as Chief Secretary to the Treasury and Health Secretary under Tony Blair, and as Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, organised Labour’s 2005 General Election campaign, will publish the second part of his report in the autumn. It is expected to include recommendations for how this crisis, which is costing the UK £1.25bn a year, could be tackled, including where the jobs might come from.

As we’re living through such tumultuous times, let us hope that the political will is still there to take on board what Milburn recommends before the end of the year. This matter is far too important to be dismissed as yet another government report. The future of so many young people - and the country - depends upon it.