Britain’s youth employment response took two forms Oct. 15: Prime Minister Andy Burnham called for a support guarantee, while hospitality employers set a target of 100,000 paid jobs for 18-to-24-year-olds not in education, employment or training (NEET).
At the King’s Trust Centre in Manchester, Burnham said the offer was being developed across government. It could include mental health support, academic and technical education, apprenticeships and work experience. He pointed to 45-day placements for 16-to-18-year-olds as one model. “I believe we need a new guarantee of support when young people need it,” he said. His remarks gave no eligibility rules, funding plan or rollout timetable.
The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) said employers would target 100,000 paid jobs over three years. The initial group includes Whitbread, McDonald’s, Nando’s, Marriott, Compass, Burger King, Parkdean Resorts, Haven, Fuller’s, Merlin Entertainments, Stonegate Group, Mitchells and Butler, Wagamama, Sodexo, WSH Limited and De Vere.
UKHospitality said the partnership would also provide training and work experience and widen access to its Hospitality Skills Passport. The group describes a broader goal of 100,000 “first starts” through jobs, training and work experience by the end of Parliament, using a different measure from the DWP’s paid-job target. UKHospitality says the passport can reduce duplicated training for member businesses.
The Office for National Statistics (ONS) put the number of UK residents ages 16 to 24 classified as NEET at 981,000 for April to June 2026, equal to 13% of that age group. The estimate was 30,000 higher than a year earlier and 30,000 below January to March. The ONS also counted 894,000 NEET people ages 18 to 24 and cautions that its Labour Force Survey estimates remain volatile, particularly for smaller groups.
In his speech, Burnham linked young people’s difficulties to cuts in youth and school support, long waits for mental health care and an education system he said put too much emphasis on university. He framed the policy choice as weighing the expense of added support against costs associated with young people remaining NEET. Alan Milburn’s May interim review estimated an annual UK cost of £125 billion for nearly one million NEET young people; it also found six in 10 had never had a job, compared with four in 10 in 2005.
The next ONS NEET data update is due Nov. 26.
