Labour market data released this week shows the UK jobless rate increasing to a post-pandemic peak of 5.2 %. According to the Office for National Statistics, youth unemployment has now reached 16.1% the highest in more than a decade even if it’s always been much higher than unemployment generally. These numbers for 16–24-year-olds are of […]
Barely three months after publishing yet another ‘skills’ white paper—close to 100 pages diagnosing the UK’s long‑running skills crisis and promising new technical qualifications, NEET initiatives and rebrands for further and higher education—the government has unveiled something very different. And arguably, something that should be closer to the reality facing workers in the 2020s. The […]
Labour market statistics for December 2025, put unemployment for young people not in full-time education at over 1 in 8, with another 1 in 6 ‘economically inactive’. Youth unemployment has historically been much worse than for other groups, but these high levels of are symptomatic of broader changes in the labour market, the economy and […]
Data published last week just reaffirms longer term changes in the nature of apprenticeships – particularly who does them and at what level. https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/apprenticeships/2024-25 It’s a mistake to see apprenticeships as an alternative pathway for 16- and 17-year-olds not continuing on the academic track, the original intention for their reintroduction at the start of the […]
Many people, it seems, even some practitioners and activists, don’t seem to be aware that the law requires all young people in England to continue in education or training until their 18th birthday. Enforcing this legislation (part of the 2008 Education Act) has been difficult – the most recent ONS statistics show 75,000 16–17-year-olds categorised as […]
books and articles by Martin Allen 