Dave Martin, 25, lives with his parents in his childhood home just outside the supergrid city of Milton Keynes. His days consist of doing chores around the house to \u201cearn his keep\u201d: walking the dog, mowing the lawn and cooking meals for his family a few times a week. In his free time, he experiments with writing fiction and loses himself in tabletop role-playing games with his online friends. But for the past four years, since he graduated from university, the majority of Dave\u2019s days have been spent endlessly sending off job applications, always to no avail.<\/p>\n
\u201cGenerally, it\u2019s been five- or six-month stints of active searching. I get increasingly anxious, then I just give up for a month or two before a different kind of anxiety pushes me back towards job hunting,\u201d says Dave. He holds a degree in Environmental Science, but has been applying to any role he can find \u2013 baggage handling, kitchen work, barista jobs. \u201cJust today I got a rejection for a supermarket warehouse picker role,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n
Dave is far from the only one stuck in this cycle. It is no secret that the job market is in a dire state. Rising employment costs<\/a>, the advent of AI, and ghost jobs<\/a> have created a perfect storm of employment scarcity, which young people who are attempting to enter the workforce for the first time are bearing the brunt of. According to a recent government report<\/a> by Alan Milburn, approximately one million young people across the UK are not in employment, education or training \u2013 \u2018NEETS\u2019. The number of NEETS is the highest it\u2019s been in 12 years: the Milburn report refers to the situation as a \u201cmoral crisis\u201d and paints a bleak picture of a lost, \u201cbedroom generation\u201d. It\u2019s a story, Milburn writes, \u201cthat should disturb anyone who cares about the future of young people in this country\u201d.<\/p>\n 20-year-old Lily-Rose Bisson, who is from Leeds, estimates that she applied to 200 jobs before she landed part-time work as a waitress \u2013 a role she was laid off from not long after her first shift. \u201cThe ratio of jobs that you\u2019d apply for and hear back from was just appalling,\u201d she says. \u201cI\u2019ll get an email within the hour of submitting the application saying \u2018sorry, but we\u2019re not going to move forward.\u2019\u201d The dead-end process has much to do with the fault of employers using AI to vet applications: on multiple occasions, Lily-Rose has received an automated rejection email within an hour of submitting her CV and cover letter. \u201cI\u2019ve spent almost three hours trying to apply for your business, and you don\u2019t even have the decency to have a real human look through my application and email me back,\u201d she says.\u00a0<\/p>\n In Dave\u2019s experience, employers are unwilling to train new staff and the strict requirements for prior experience, even at entry level, have \u201cseemingly clogged the entire world of work where increasingly senior people are doing more junior roles.\u201d It\u2019s far from an unfounded belief: research<\/a> shows that a third of UK firms are actively hiring older workers due to a concern about younger staff lacking the skills.\u00a0\u201cIt\u2019s so disheartening,\u201d says Lily-Rose. \u201cI just felt so unwanted by society.\u201d<\/p>\n The Milburn report identified mental health problems as central to the crisis: 43 per cent of \u2018NEETS\u2019 say that mental health problems are the main reason they are unable to work, up from 24 per cent in 2011. Julie Evans, Head of Media and Communications at Spear, an organisation which helps tackle youth unemployment, says that a decade ago the driving force behind NEET rates was anti-social behaviour, whereas now, social isolation and a sense of malaise are the more common issues. \u201cOne young woman told us recently she hadn\u2019t left the house in a year,\u201d says Evans.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s not that we don’t want to work and we\u2019re using mental health as an excuse. We want to work, we\u2019re not getting any jobs, and because of that our mental health is taking a hit\u201d<\/p>\n Lily-Rose believes that the unemployment crisis is the cause of poor mental health levels to begin with. \u201cIt\u2019s not that we don\u2019t want to work and we\u2019re using mental health as an excuse. We want to work, we\u2019re just not getting any jobs, and because of that, our mental health is taking a hit,\u201d she says. The overriding feeling, she says, is one of dread: \u201cdreading being stuck in this loop of unemployment and dreading not being accepted into the world\u201d.\u00a0\u00a0Most nights, Dave wakes up at four in the morning with an \u201calmost physical\u201d fear that his life is passing him by. \u201cI rarely get back to sleep,\u201d he says. \u201cI spend pretty much the whole time tired enough that my eyes ache.\u201d<\/p>\n Experts have stressed that this crisis will cause long-term repercussions. According to a recent UCL study<\/a>, being out of work and education from a young age has a \u2018scarring\u2019 effect on wages and mental health, lasting into midlife. There is a sense amongst the younger generation that the basic initiations into adulthood, which were the default offerings to previous generations, have been robbed from their hands. \u201cIf you\u2019re not earning money, then you can\u2019t do certain things that you would love to, whether it\u2019s start a business or travel or own a house or start a family,\u201d says Catherina, 24, from Brighton, who has been unable to get a full-time job since graduating from university in 2023.\u00a0<\/p>\n So what more needs to be done? The second half of the Milburn report is set to be released in the autumn, and it will contain recommendations from the government of how the NEETs crisis can be rectified. Evans says that to tackle the issue, not only do there need to be more government-backed schemes to train young people entering the workforce, but there also needs to be evidence that the schemes currently in place actually work. \u201cWork coaches at the Jobcentre should be given evidence for every support scheme they send young people to \u2013 proof that the schemes actually improve a young person\u2019s chances,\u201d she says.\u00a0<\/p>\n Dave fears that these concessions might be too little too late, as he surpasses the age bracket of 16-24, in which unemployment is a targeted issue for the government. He defines himself as being part of a \u201clost micro-generation\u201d. \u201cAll the focus seems to be on people younger than 20,\u201d he says. \u201cI feel like there is a tranche of people like me who have missed that first step into careers being left to rot.\u201d<\/p>\n Lily-Rose says that she holds \u201ca lot of anger towards the government for their lack of accountability and lack of care\u201d. \u201cThey don\u2019t care about young people. They only care about themselves and [voters in] their age bracket,\u201d she says. Even the term NEET is patronising to some: an interviewee in this<\/a> BBC video says it should be rephrased to \u2018LEET\u2019 \u2013\u00a0looking for employment, education or training.<\/p>\n Despite it all, Catherina is still motivated with her job search and remains hopeful that the unemployment crisis will be resolved. In the meantime, she keeps herself busy: meeting with friends from her church group, listening to a good podcast, gardening if the weather permits it. Recently, to clear her mind, she did what she calls an \u201centertainment fast\u201d \u2013 abstaining from all forms of media for 24 hours \u2013 to quiet her mind. \u201cI haven\u2019t given up and I\u2019m still determined,\u201d she says. \u201cI just think older people need to have more compassion for younger adults.\u201d<\/p>\n