Youth unemployment is now one of the greatest challenges facing the country. Nearly 1½ million young people are currently not in education, employment or training – over 1 in 5 of all young people. A quarter of a million have been unemployed for over a year. The costs of these levels of
long-term youth unemployment – now and in the future – are enormous. This is a crisis we cannot afford. The human misery of youth unemployment is also a time-bomb under the nation’s finances. We have done new research on the cash costs of youth unemployment. Even we were surprised. The question we have addressed is simple: can anything be done? The answer is yes, and the proof comes from parts of Britain that are doing good things, and other countries that have much better systems for getting young people ready for and into work. But we need young people, government, communities and employers to up their game.
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