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There’s huge concern worldwide about the difficulties young people are facing in getting their first jobs. Here in the UK, the rise in Neets – that’s young people not in education, employment or training – was the key concern of the review published last week by Alan Milburn, the former health minister under the Tony Blair government. But while the increase in Neets is profoundly worrying, it is not particularly a British issue.
Over the past decade, the job market has clearly shifted against young people. Why? Many reasons have been suggested, including the oversupply of graduates doing degrees that don’t prepare them for jobs, the lack of adequate technical training, even changes in the attitude of young people towards work and so on. While in Britain the problem has almost certainly been made worse by the sharp increases in employers’ national insurance and the living wage, it can’t just be that.
In the past couple of years, two other reasons have pushed to the front. One is the rise in working from home (WFH) following the pandemic. The other is the way in which artificial intelligence seems to be taking over entry-level tasks. But which is more important?
