‘I know someone in a warehouse with a master’s degree’: how to break the cycle of youth unemployment
Share:
The number of young people who are not in jobs, education or training is poised to hit 1 million, unless proper steps are taken to help them secure their – and Britain’s – future. At a packed east London jobs fair, Habib Mudh hid is looking for an employer to give him a break. Having spent his early 20s navigating failed job applications, courses and bit-part employment, Mudh hid is among a growing post-pandemic generation of young adults out of work.
![[Richard Partington]](https://i.guim.co.uk/img/uploads/2017/12/27/Richard_Partington,_R.png?width=75&dpr=1&s=none&crop=none)
“All that process, then nothing, and you feel like you have hope. But then nothing,” says the 24-year-old, who has come to the event for young adults at the Hackney jobcentre. “Hopefully I can get a foothold today.”. The bustling room, divided by plastic screens and with desks for each employer or training provider – which include McDonald’s and the West Ham United Foundation – highlights a quietly brewing national crisis in youth unemployment, after a rise in joblessness among 16- to 24-year-olds to the highest level in almost a decade.
![[Habib Mudh hid, sits at a desk at the jobcebtre talking to a jobcentre worker]](https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/1e20612b52b8c48e346c9855fed989f4837650ab/0_0_8192_5464/master/8192.jpg?width=445&dpr=1&s=none&crop=none)
Experts say years of neglect and lack of funding for employment support is now colliding with the fallout from the Covid pandemic, as well as rising mental health issues for gen Z adults coming of age in a highly pressurised, rapidly transforming world of work.
![[Alae El Asri poses for a photograph int he office]](https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/08db4084d719a28311436a8841fbbe3bd0dc827a/0_1365_5464_6827/master/5464.jpg?width=445&dpr=1&s=none&crop=none)
After their final years of education were disrupted, with work experience opportunities limited by lockdowns, the numbers of young people not in education, employment or training (Neet) has soared – with the total on track to breach 1 million within months.
![[People queue for a bus on Kingsland Road in Hackney]](https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/0ad79d44bc0ed7ca7808e3983d2afc6276023477/0_0_5079_3387/master/5079.jpg?width=445&dpr=1&s=none&crop=none)
