UK youth (under 24) unemployment tops a million in the UK – The reason?
The Marxist Labour government raised the cost by 11% on employers (the youth employee still pays £628)
PETER HALLIGAN
First the heinous increase in national insurance imposed on ALL employees – but let’s just focus on a scenario of low wage youth employment paying the old minimum wage of £10/hour – which the new labour laws increased to £10.85 (+8.5%)
The increase in minimum wage for a 35 hour week and 50 weeks a year isan increase from £17,500 to around £19,000 a year. Not much, but it is a wage and sufficient for sneakers and a few nights out from the parents home.
Now comes the national insurance increase where the threshold where a 15% rate kicked in at £5,000 rather than the old threshold of £9,100.
New amount of national insurance on £19,000 of wages = £2,100 v the old amount on £17,500 of around £1,500 for an increase on (minimum wage) youth employment of £2,100
There is also the impact of changes to labour laws that make it harder to fire unsuitable employees).
Compare that increase of £2,100 to the old (minimum wage) employment cost of £17,500 plus old national insurance cost of around £1,500 (for a total annual cost of around £19,000 a year) AN INCREASE OF 11% a year for a 35-hour week/ 50- week year and it is an increase of 11%
Then factor in the changes to hiring/firing passed into law.
(employed youth continues to pay employee national insurance of £628 on earnings of £19,000 a year).
Having created this massive disadvantage to youth unemployment, in true socialist fashion, the Marxist government attempts to correct it – from Brave AI:
“Youth Employment Package and Wage Subsidies To counter rising youth unemployment, which reached 16.1% for 16–24-year-olds in late 2025, the government announced a £1 billion youth employment package.
“Key measures include a “Youth Jobs Grant” offering employers £3,000 per hire for 18–24-year-old Universal Credit claimants, and a “Jobs Guarantee” that covers 100% of employer costs for up to 25 hours a week for six months for those unemployed for 18+ months.
“These subsidies are designed to reduce short-term hiring costs, particularly in labor-intensive sectors like retail and hospitality, though analysts note they support only a fraction of the nearly 1 million NEET (Not in Education, Employment, or Training) young people.
“Critics, including business leaders and some economists, argue that these combined tax and wage increases have made hiring young people more expensive and risky, contributing to the surge in youth unemployment. “
Yeah really.. The Actual costs for minimum wage youth employed are around £2,000 a year and the £3,000 mitigation “ supports only a fraction of the nearly 1 million NEET (Not in Education, Employment, or Training) young people.
Employers pay the cost and have to BEG for mitigation of extra NI costs with no mitigation for changes to employment laws.
Here’s the NEET summary from Brave AI:
“1,012,000 young people in the UK were classified as NEET (Not in Education, Employment, or Training) between January and March 2026. This figure represents 13.5% of all young people aged 16–24, marking a 12-year high and the first time the count has exceeded one million since 2013.
Key breakdowns for this period include:
- Gender Split: The rise was driven by young men, with 553,000 NEET (14.4% of their age group), compared to 459,000 young women (12.5%).
- Age Groups: The majority are aged 18–24 (928,000), while 84,000 are aged 16–17.
- Status: Of these individuals, 613,000 are economically inactive (the highest level since records began in 2001), while 400,000 are unemployed.
The interim report from the Milburn Review, published on the same day as these figures, warns that without urgent intervention, this number could rise to 1.25 million by 2031, costing the UK economy an estimated £125 billion annually.”
Onwards!
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