The headline numbers tell only part of the story. Youth unemployment has surged to 13.7 per cent, even as economic inactivity among 16–24‑year‑olds has fallen. In other words: more young people are trying to enter the labour market, but the door is closing in their faces. London, often treated as the bellwether for national trends, now sits at 7.2 per cent unemployment, a warning light that should be impossible for ministers to ignore.
Ben Harrison of the Work Foundation put it plainly: “More people chasing fewer jobs.” That is the lived reality across the country. Vacancy levels remain weak, employer confidence is fragile, and the long‑term unemployed — especially those at the start of their careers — are being pushed to the margins. The ONS reports that 3.86 million unemployed or economically inactive people now want work, a rise of 385,000 in a year. That is not a labour market functioning normally; it is a labour market failing.
And yet the government continues to insist that its employment strategy is working.
The truth is that the UK is drifting without a coherent plan. Ministers came to power promising to raise employment to 80 per cent. Eighteen months later, they face a workforce where nearly four million people want a job but cannot find one, and where wage growth is slowing sharply. Private‑sector pay is now rising at its weakest rate in five years, while public‑sector pay remains artificially elevated only because of delayed settlements from last year.
The TUC is right to call this what it is: an affordability crisis. Households cannot spend, firms cannot invest, and young workers are being funnelled into insecure, low‑paid, zero‑hours roles that trap them in a cycle of instability. The government’s new Jobs Guarantee scheme could help — but only if it is funded properly, scaled rapidly, and paired with secure, unionised jobs that allow young people to build a future rather than scramble for survival.
Meanwhile, at the Department for Work and Pensions, 50,000 PCS members are being balloted over low pay. The irony is stark: the very staff tasked with supporting jobseekers are themselves being pushed into poverty by government policy. As PCS general secretary Fran Heathcote warns, ministers cannot tackle unemployment while driving down the pay of the workforce responsible for administering the system.
Solidarity’s General Secretary Pat Harrington captured the wider truth: “A labour market built on insecurity will always fail the young first. If the government wants higher employment, it must start by valuing workers — not treating them as disposable.”
This is not a labour market in recovery. It is a labour market in stasis — and without decisive intervention, the regional inequalities now visible in London will spread. The government must act: invest, create secure jobs, rebuild public services, and restore confidence. Anything less is a dereliction of duty.
By Maria Camara