UofG Centre for Public Policy

2 July 2026: Following Alan Milburn's recent interim report into young people and work, Dr Thomas Rochow outlines the 'perfect storm' facing young people preparing to enter the world of work, and writes that instead of the UK Government's current 'old-fashioned' approach, holistic support with young people at its heart is needed to tackle this complex challenge.

Blog by Dr Thomas Rochow

Every generation has its own challenges. Every new youth cohort is smeared by older generations. Their cultural trends and supposed fecklessness are a symbol of a society in disrepair. This is nothing new. However, there does feel something different about the latest generation of young people transitioning to adulthood in the UK. A coalescence of distinct global crises, such as Covid-19, groundbreaking technological transformations, such as the emergence of generative AI, and structural changes, such as the growth of insecure deindustrialised labour markets, has whipped up a perfect storm landing as millions of ambitious young people seek to make their way in the world. 

The recent Milburn report comprehensively illuminated the impacts of this perfect storm in numbers and in the words of young people. As of March 2026, over 1 million 16-24 year olds were not in education, employment or training in the UK. They are economically inactive and not looking for work. Every day a young person spends in this state of being checked out, of thinking there is no place for them in society, they move further away from ever entering meaningful employment. Extended periods of economic inactivity at a young age have long-term detrimental effects on the individual and the economy.

Before we go any further, it should be noted that although I have framed this from a generational perspective, intra-generational inequalities are intensifying alongside growing intergenerational inequalities. Many young people will be able to ride out periods of economic decline or a housing crisis because they have considerable informal support networks. Increasingly, among recent generations, fewer young people hoard a larger share of the opportunities and resources. The rising intra-generational inequalities are particularly driven by the 'have and have-nots' in the housing market and the proliferating role of the bank of mum and dad in young people’s homeownership rates.

Returning to the perfect storm metaphor, let us also throw into the mix a dated education system that does not prepare young people for the dynamic contemporary labour markets and the digital native generations have been consumed by social media and had their thoughts manipulated by algorithms from a young age. It is possibly understandable why so many employers describe the so-called anxious generation as ‘not work ready’. Policy interventions to address this problem of youth unemployment, which is again not new but now manifests in different ways, have typically focused on youth employability. The human capital framing of the problem generates supply-side bias when developing solutions: “If we have more highly educated and better-skilled young people, fewer will struggle in the labour market.” We now have the most educated cohort of young people in terms of higher education qualifications, but the problem of youth economic inactivity only continues to intensify. Conventional strategies often place great emphasis on the individual, then sit back and hope that somehow valorised employment opportunities will materialise if the employability of young people is enhanced. The demand-side problem is overlooked, and support is typically short-term and one-dimensional. 

For instance, the Government’s latest attempt to tackle this wicked issue is a decidedly old-fashioned solution. As part of the £2.5 billion investment in The Youth Guarantee, thousands of six-month paid work experience opportunities will be provided for 18–24-year-olds who have been receiving UC for 18 months without earning or learning. On the surface, this appears like a valuable initiative, but we have seen this before, and it fails to recognise the unique circumstances in which this generation is seeking to enter the labour market. There is no clear picture of what will happen after the six months of work experience; what happens to the cohort or individual young people five years after engaging in the scheme? Are employers more likely to hire that young person or take a chance on more young people in the future?

As the Milburn report argues, support needs to be holistic. The demographic of young people out of work for health reasons has increased 76% since 2021. Hence, employment support and mental health support should be rolled into one. There should be continuity of care; a caseworker and a mental health professional should be given the time and resources to work together with the same group of young people over many years. If siloed support systems remain the only option for young people, the holistic impacts are diluted and can even become detrimental to those who engage with them. Admittedly, it is easier to say support should be holistic than to make it happen. This is a complex problem that requires multifaceted solutions from a range of actors, with young people at the heart of efforts to change the system. There is a lot of old and new here: an old problem with a new face, old policy solutions in a new world, and the old adage of older adults making decisions on behalf of a new cohort of young people.

Author

Dr Thomas Rochow is a Research Associate at the Centre for Public Policy. He is primarily a qualitative researcher, and his work intersects youth transitions, welfare systems and care policies. 

More insights from Dr Thomas Rochow

Read: 2026 Election Policy Insights 2026: Social Security

Listen: UofG Spotlight: Are we tackling poverty in Scotland?

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^{Image by Ross Sneddon on Unsplash}

First published: 2 July 2026