After leaving college in May 2025, 19-year-old Joseph Ingle expected job hunting to take a little while. But more than a year later, he’s still no closer to finding a permanent position in his hometown of Norwich. “It’s difficult because there are lots of people my age struggling to find work,” he says. “After so many applications without a response it does have an effect on me. It feels like nobody wants to take a chance on me. A lot of jobs say you need experience but I can’t seem to get anything to give me experience. I know if I was given a shot, I could do a good job.”
There are now an estimated 1 million 16- to 24-year-olds – or one in eight – not in education, employment or training (Neet) in the UK. Economic uncertainty, Brexit, the pandemic and the pace of digital transformation have all reshaped the job market. The Open University’s annual Business Barometer, which has charted the UK skills landscape since 2017, found that 76% of employers say economic uncertainty has made recruitment or training more difficult in the past 12 months, and 43% have hired fewer staff. Meanwhile, 57% of employers agree that there’s a skills shortage in their organisation, and 42% believe it will get worse over the next five years.
