Britain faces 'generational fault line' with risk of 1.25m youngsters out of work, training or education
Former health secretary Alan Milburn’s report comes after he carried out the Pathways to Work Commission in Barnsley.
Britain faces a “generational fault line” unless it confronts a whole-system failure that risks seeing more than a million youngsters locked out of work, education or training, a New Labour grandee will warn today.
Former Health Secretary Alan Milburn will unveil a new report, commissioned by the Government, on the crisis facing youngsters, and is expected to say: “This is not a failure of young people. It is a failure of a system stuck in the past.”
He will warn that without urgent action, the number of young people who are not in education, employment, or training (Neet) will rise from one in eight to one in six young people within five years, a whopping 1.25m people.
The evidence will find there is far more than just a single failure, with schools, the health system, welfare state and labour market “no longer fit for purpose”.
The report calls for a reset from a welfare state that is exacerbating "exacerbating inactivity" to a working state that "builds capability".
Mr Milburn is expected to say: “Six in ten have never had a job. Twenty years ago, that figure was closer to four in ten.
“Detachment is no longer temporary. For too many young people it is becoming permanent. We are at risk of a lost generation.”
The report will point to Britain's jobs boom of recent decades largely passing young people by.
It will say entry level jobs have long been in sharp decline, while vacancies in hospitality have halved in the last four years alone.
Saturday jobs have long been in freefall, the report will find, while apprenticeship starts among young people have fallen by 35 per cent over the last decade.
Mr Milburn will say: “The first rung of the career ladder has thinned. For too many young people it is now simply out of reach.
“That places them in a hopeless Catch-22 where employers ask for work experience but the opportunities for young people to gain it have narrowed or gone."
He previously told this paper: “There’s a fundamental economic blind spot in this conversation in that hospitality is one of the largest employers of young people in the UK.
“For decades, it has provided first jobs, first pay cheques, and first opportunities. It gives young people discipline, confidence, responsibility, and freedom.
“It teaches teamwork, resilience, and communication — skills that can be carried into every other sector. How many people had their first job in a pub, café or restaurant?
“At a time when youth unemployment is at alarming levels, the idea that we should want fewer hospitality businesses is baffling.”
This called for a holistic and integrated approach to getting people back into work, and was used as a “proof of concept” by the Department for Work and Pensions.
Both the The Young People and Work: Diagnostic Report, published today, and the Pathways to Work Commission found that the vast majority of people, young or old, want to get into work or training, yet the opportunities are not there.
Work and Pensions Secretary Pat McFadden said: “I commissioned this report because we cannot afford to lose a generation of young people, and I welcome Alan Milburn’s vital work which lays bare the scale of the challenge and the root causes of youth unemployment we now need to confront.
“We are already taking action by bringing forward the biggest youth employment reforms in a generation to create 500,000 opportunities for young people, including a Youth Jobs Grant for businesses starting next month, more apprenticeships, and subsidised employment to help young people get a foot on the ladder.”