A record one million young people – approximately one in eight aged 16 to 24 – are not in education, employment or training (NEET) – a major report looks at the reasons why
Youngsters have said they feel Britain is creating a “bedroom generation” of kids who are losing hope after spending years at home on their phones, landmark research shows.
A landmark report, which gathered stories from more than 400 young people, today lays bare the crisis facing youngsters. A record one million young people – approximately one in eight aged 16 to 24 – are not in education, employment or training (NEET).
Young people told the study they feel trapped in a “rejection economy” where entry-level jobs demand experience they cannot get and applications vanish without reply.
And the report, titled Inside the Mind of a Young NEET, dispelled myths that this generation is “lazy”, with more than 80% expressing a clear desire to work despite facing multiple challenges.
One 24-year-old young man told the report his employment struggles had left him feeling suicidal. He said: “Suicidal thoughts are quite frequent and really easy for me. It’s like: ‘I just want it all to end. I don’t want to do this anymore. I’m failing at everything, failing my friends and failing myself.’”
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Young people also criticised a lack of school support in preparing kids for adult life. One young person, on the transition from school, said: “School just ended, with an assembly and that was it. It’s just: okay, now I’m an adult, get a job.”
Another young person said: “School was always pushing you for university. They didn’t really offer any support for other things you can do.”
The report, written by researcher Shuab Gamote and former headteacher Peter Hyman, said: “Young people told us about spending not just months but years at home, online, and losing hope.
“Young people told us that they get no response to job applications. Many young people we spoke to had spent years in their bedroom after leaving school at 16. They had short spells trying college or work. But long periods up to several years with nothing.”
The report cited loneliness, the impact of the pandemic, mental health, disability and neurodiversity among the barriers to employment, education or training for young people. This is on top of challenges including poverty, loneliness and social media addiction, it added.
The study categorised youngsters into three categories: Not yet ready for work, education or training, close but stuck, or ready but shut out.
The first category includes examples such as a care leaver who ended up in her bedroom playing Xbox, ordering food, unable to leave the house for over a year, or a young woman who spent nine months in her bedroom after being bullied.
The second includes young people who are not far from work but are locked out of employment by barriers such as having missed a single maths or English grade. And the final category includes youngsters who are ready for work but are suffering due to a lack of accessible jobs
The report adds: “Employers do not reply. Entry-level jobs ask for experience. Apprenticeships are oversubscribed or too far away. Recruitment processes are inaccessible, impersonal or needlessly complex. Over time, repeated rejection starts to look like personal failure, even when it is system failure.”
Mr Hyman said: “This generation is different. Covid plus poverty plus social media plus lack of work experience plus loneliness means getting a job really is difficult. We are letting a generation down.”
Mr Gamote: “The young people we met were not lazy, hopeless or lacking ambition. They were exhausted by a system that made them feel rejected before adult life had even begun.
“Again and again, we met young people who wanted to work and contribute, but were being pushed from one closed door to another. What struck me most was not just the pain young people were carrying, but their resilience. The question is whether Britain is prepared to try as hard for them.”