Britain slipping down global league table for youth employment, says report

Business leaders have said tax rises, a higher minimum wage and the government’s employment rights bill is driving up the cost of hiring young people. Photograph: Monty Rakusen/Getty Images

Britain is slipping down the global league table for youth employment amid a dramatic rise in worklessness that is putting a generation’s future at risk, research has warned.

Sounding the alarm over a worsening youth jobs crisis, the report from the accountancy firm PwC said Britain’s economy was missing out on £26bn a year because of sharp regional divisions in youth joblessness.