Alan Milburn has published a landmark government-commissioned review into tackling the spiralling challenge of youth unemployment. 

The former Labour cabinet minister warned that Britain faces a “generational fault line” as the number of young people not in education, employment or training (NEET) has topped one million for the first time since 2013. 

The 217-page report – the first of two parts, with recommendations to follow in the autumn – describes a “whole system failure” driven by the collapse of entry-level jobs, the death of the Saturday job, a sharp decline in apprenticeships, and a recruitment landscape that has become so formalised that a young person applying for a warehouse role may now face the same multi-stage process as a graduate hire. 

It says the cumulative annual cost of youth inactivity is estimated at £125bn – more than the country spends on education – and the proportion of Neets who have never held a single job is now at 60%. 

Emma Hughes, Partner and Head of HR Services at Browne Jacobson, said: "The Milburn report shines a light on something many HR professionals will recognise but few have been willing to confront. The finding that the most consistent complaint from young applicants is not rejection but silence is a damning indictment of how some employers are managing that experience.

"It would be wrong to lay all of this at the door of employers, however. Employer behaviour does not develop in isolation from government policy. As employment protections expand and greater scrutiny is placed on casual working arrangements, employers inevitably become more risk-conscious — and employers are being asked to take chances on candidates with little or no work history at precisely the moment the legal, financial and operational risks of getting recruitment wrong feel higher than ever.

"But there is a danger that the system has overcorrected. Too often, the young people who succeed are those whose families can open doors for them. That raises important questions not only about youth employment, but about social mobility and fairness more broadly.

"There is an uncomfortable contradiction at the heart of this. Employers frequently talk about skills shortages and difficulties attracting talent, yet many recruitment processes are designed in ways that exclude candidates with potential simply because they lack prior experience. The employers that build relationships with young people before they are job-ready will be better placed in a labour market that is becoming increasingly difficult to navigate — for young people and businesses alike.

"Ahead of the recommendations in the autumn, we'd also like to see greater recognition that major societal and economic challenges like youth employment and social mobility are becoming deeply interconnected. The more difficult it becomes to access that first opportunity, the more important personal networks and family circumstances have become. 

"It's therefore crucial the Milburn review, and the government's response, seeks to weave policies that enhance social mobility throughout its approach to getting young people into work."