Alan Milburn has warned that the proportion of young people not in education, employment, or training (Neet) could rise to one in six within five years, as he cautioned that detachment from the labour market is becoming permanent for many.
Milburn's Warning on Youth Detachment
Speaking about the issue, Milburn said he believed every young person has something to offer. When Pat McFadden first asked him to undertake this work, he came with the view that every young person has scale and aptitude of potential. Every one of them should have an opportunity to learn or to earn. He noted that youth unemployment has been a persistent problem for a long time.
The Neet Crisis
Milburn highlighted that the Neet rate in the UK has barely been below 10% in 25 years. He stated: "It’s one thing to be ignorant about a problem. It’s quite another to be neglectful. And I’m sad to say that for far too long in our country, the Neet crisis has been swept under the carpet. Not any longer." This review exists because Britain faces a genuine generational faultline. However, the problem was getting worse, he said.
Milburn emphasized: "We do not just have a chronic problem, it is getting worse, not getting better. And we have neither a system nor a plan to deal with it." He explained that a decade or more ago, the problem was temporary youth unemployment. While youth unemployment today is still far too high, it is now something deeper and far more corrosive: youth detachment from the labour market.
Key Statistics
- Nearly six in 10 young people who are Neet today are economically inactive, meaning they are not looking for a job.
- Six in 10 have never had a job, compared to four in 10 twenty years ago.
- If the current trajectory continues, the Neet rate will climb from one in eight to one in six within five years.
Milburn concluded: "Detachment is no longer temporary for too many young people, it is becoming permanent. We are at risk of a lost generation."
