‘Firing off 10 to 15 applications a day’: how UK’s hiring slump hits the young

UK employmentAdd to myFTGet instant alerts for this topicManage your delivery channels hereRemove from myFT‘Firing off 10 to 15 applications a day’: how UK’s hiring slump hits the youngMinisters’ push to help almost 1mn people not in education, employment or training needs to go further, say analysts© Jon Super/FT‘Firing off 10 to 15 applications a day’: how UK’s hiring slump hits the young on x (opens in a new window)‘Firing off 10 to 15 applications a day’: how UK’s hiring slump hits the young on facebook (opens in a new window)‘Firing off 10 to 15 applications a day’: how UK’s hiring slump hits the young on linkedin (opens in a new window)‘Firing off 10 to 15 applications a day’: how UK’s hiring slump hits the young on whatsapp (opens in a new window) Save ‘Firing off 10 to 15 applications a day’: how UK’s hiring slump hits the young on x (opens in a new window)‘Firing off 10 to 15 applications a day’: how UK’s hiring slump hits the young on facebook (opens in a new window)‘Firing off 10 to 15 applications a day’: how UK’s hiring slump hits the young on linkedin (opens in a new window)‘Firing off 10 to 15 applications a day’: how UK’s hiring slump hits the young on whatsapp (opens in a new window) Save Delphine Strauss in AstonPublishedMarch 15 2026Jump to comments sectionPrint this pageStay informed with free updatesSimply sign up to the UK employment myFT Digest -- delivered directly to your inbox.Chocolate brownies were stacked high to tempt young jobseekers from Birmingham gathered in a corporate lounge above the floodlit sweep of Premier League side Aston Villa’s stadium this month. They went uneaten. Instead, anxious 18 to 30-year-olds in Britain’s second city queued for a free headshot to make their LinkedIn profile look slick, sought out local employers offering work experience or clustered around Microsoft staff for tips on using AI to tailor CVs and prepare for interviews. The “AI skills festival”, run by charity Movement to Work, aimed to help just some of the almost 1mn young people not in education, employment or training in Britain compete with savvier peers in a recruitment process increasingly driven by algorithms. Yet for many of the Neets present, the challenge is not so much a lack of skills or visibility as the dearth of openings in a stagnating labour market. “Young people say they lack work experience and something to talk about to employers. Those opportunities are becoming few and far between,” said Sareena Bains, chief executive of Movement to Work, which partners with big employers to provide short-term placements. Sareena Bains is chief executive of the Movement to Work charity which aims to help get young people into work © Jon SuperThe rollout of AI, with its potential to kill entry-level jobs, is the latest in a series of shocks to hit vulnerable young people who grew up during the Covid-19 pandemic. Disrupted schooling, the spread of mental ill health and strains on public services were all taking a toll before an economy-wide slump in hiring that has driven youth unemployment to the highest in more than a decade, outside of the pandemic period.UK ministers are acutely concerned about the prospects of the 957,000 people aged 16 to 24 now counted in official data as Neet — many of whom have never had a paid job and are inactive owing to ill health or disability. “Covid hit when I was in year 7, and I struggled a lot with mental health . . . I took my maths and English GCSEs in hospital,” said Bailey Millar, a care leaver attending the skills event. Bailey Millar struggled with her mental health while sitting school exams during Covid © Jon Super/FTRepeated moves during her school years prevented Millar taking other exams despite good predicted grades. Now she wants a career in social care but risks losing the housing benefit that helps her live in supported accommodation if she works full-time. “I’d rather have a full-time job . . . but I can only do volunteering or free [training] courses,” she said. Bailey is one of 30,000 18 to 24-year-old jobseekers claiming benefits in the West Midlands region. A similar number are economically inactive but invisible to the authorities, since they are not receiving help or engaging with the system in any way, according to Nathan Weekes, head of employment support at the mayoral combined authority.It is funding events such as the skills festival — held in community settings rather than Jobcentres, which are often viewed with suspicion — as one of eight “trailblazer” areas testing ways to steer disengaged young people towards support through the government’s “Youth Guarantee”. Work and pensions secretary Pat McFadden has said the policy — a promise of help to find a job, apprenticeship or training — will be backed by £820mn of investment over the next three years. A further £725mn has been earmarked to expand apprenticeships. But this will only help if there are enough jobs on offer. At present, a policy designed to tackle youth inactivity is being rolled out against a backdrop of rising youth unemployment, with some 16.1 per cent of 16 to 24-year-olds in the UK actively seeking work and unable to find it.The latest official figures showed the share of 16 to 24-year-olds counted as Neet fell slightly between 2024 and 2025, from 13.2 per cent to 12.8 per cent. But this was because more young people were in education and training, offsetting a growing share unable to find employment.McFadden is set to announce on Monday the expansion of a new “jobs guarantee” scheme aiming to address this by offering state-funded work placements to long-term benefits claimants aged between 18 and 21. An initial trial of the policy is limited to just 1,000 places, with a goal of national rollout to some 55,000, but McFadden will lay out plans for a further 35,000 places and widen eligibility up to the age of 24. He will also announce a new £3,000 grant for businesses hiring young jobseekers who have been claiming benefits for six months, and changes to open up more apprenticeships to young people.Business groups accuse the government of killing more jobs than any such intervention could create through its decision to raise employers’ national insurance and the youth minimum wage rate, as well as strengthening workers’ rights in ways they say could make it more costly and riskier to hire. In this context, current policies to help Neets and expand apprenticeships were “not stacking up to the scale of the challenge”, said Stephen Evans, chief executive of the Learning & Work Institute, before the latest policy changes were reported this weekend.Tianna Malin has been a hairdressing apprentice, completed a business administration course and trained in health and social care © Jon Super/FTTianna Malin, who left school after Covid disrupted her exams, can attest to this. She has already been a hairdressing apprentice, completed a business administration course and trained in health and social care without landing a permanent role. She attended the Aston Villa event as part of a new course in hospitality and bartending, which she hopes will pay off. But job losses over the past year have been deeper in hospitality than in any other sector. And even in low-wage industries, school leavers such as Malin are increasingly competing with better-qualified peers. At the festival Romaine, a soft-spoken, smartly dressed graduate, said he studied forensic science because “it was what [he] loved education-wise”, but found on finishing his course two years ago that there was no route into this in the police. Now he sends between 10 and 15 online applications a day for short-term work in customer service roles while dipping into modelling and photography. Romaine studied forensic science because ‘it was what [he] loved education-wise’ © Jon Super/FTRomaine’s brother Romario wants to qualify as a quantitative surveyor but is firing off applications with no success © Jon Super/FTHis brother, Romario, wants to qualify as a quantitative surveyor but is firing off applications with no success. For the time being, he is juggling his studies with agency work in catering and security. Among his friends, the only one with a job in his chosen field is working for a family firm. Maya, who preferred not to give her real name, said she had completed an apprenticeship in risk with a Big Four accounting firm but was struggling to secure a role that would allow her to move to London and develop her career.“The job market is really tough. Whether you have experience or are a fresh graduate, everyone is in the same boat,” she said, standing alongside her brother Dylan, also a pseudonym, a first-year university maths student. “He’s at a top uni and I’m an apprentice at a Big Four firm. We’re both in the best position we could be and we’re finding it tough.”Reuse this content (opens in new window) CommentsJump to comments section Follow the topics in this article Social affairs Add to myFT UK employment Add to myFT UK economy Add to myFT UK politics Add to myFT UK public policy Add to myFT CommentsComments have not been enabled for this article.