Britain’s youth unemployment crisis requires ‘immediate action’ such as lower increases in the minimum wage for under-21s, ministers have been warned.
The jobless rate among 16-to-24-year-olds has hit an 11-year high of 16.1 per cent, while there are 1m so-called NEETs – youngsters not in employment, education or training.
In the Spring Statement yesterday, Rachel Reeves said the Government ‘will not leave an entire generation of young people behind’.
But experts said her own policies – such as inflation-busting hikes to the minimum wage for under-21s and higher taxes on business – were pricing the young out.
The Resolution Foundation, a Left-leaning think-tank with close ties to Labour, said ‘immediate action is needed to address the UK’s growing youth-unemployment crisis’.
Warning that the Chancellor ‘missed the opportunity’ to act in the Spring Statement, it called for ‘a more cautious approach to youth minimum wage setting that could help get employers hiring’.
The unemployment rate among 16-to-24-year-olds has hit an 11-year high of 16.1%, while there are 1m so-called NEETs – youngsters not in employment, education or training
Resolution Foundation chief Ruth Curtice said: ‘The prospect of higher unemployment is particularly concerning.
‘The close to one million young people who are not in education, employment or training cannot afford to wait much longer for help.’
Andreas Adamides, boss of Helm, which represents more than 400 founders of fast-growing firms, said: ‘Soaring costs, higher taxes and rising wage pressures are squeezing firms and killing jobs. Unemployment is at its highest level since the pandemic.
‘That’s not success, it’s the price of bad policy.’
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