Gen Z isn’t ‘work-ready’ – why a million young brits are unemployed
Nearly a million young British people, between the ages of 16 and 24, were not in education, employment or training at the end of 2025, per the U.K. Office for National Statistics.
Hiraman | E+ | Getty Images
Young people are struggling to score their first jobs, and it might be because they’re just not ready to enter the workforce, after missing out on critical social development during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Joblessness in Generation Z is on the rise as nearly one million young British people, between the ages of 16 and 24, were NEETs (not in education, employment, or training), between July and September 2025, according to the U.K. Office for National Statistics.
Identified as a crisis, the government launched an independent review into NEETs in December, led by former Labour Health Secretary Alan Milburn.
Worryingly, the ONS report found that almost 600,000 of those young people who were unemployed were also not actively looking for a job.
Young people are facing several challenges in the job market, from artificial intelligence eliminating entry-level positions to increased competition for jobs. More than 1.2 million applications were submitted for just 17,000 graduate roles in the U.K. last year, per The U.K.’s Institute for Student Employers.
Meanwhile, the number of job openings have decreased nearly 10% on the year to 729,000 in the September to November period from a year ago, the ONS found. There were 2.5 unemployed people per vacancy between August and October, up from 1.8 the previous year.
It’s not just the economic climate, with employers and experts saying that Gen Z are not adequately prepared to join the workforce.
Milburn told The Times in a recent interview that employers find that young people “aren’t work ready” when they enter full-time jobs after school. “Young people don’t necessarily have work experience, and what they have learnt at school isn’t necessarily pertinent for the world of work.”
Generation Lockdown
U.K.-based charity Shaw Trust helps people find employment and is working to end the NEETs crisis. Chief Impact Officer Julie Leonard broke down how virtual learning and being at home during the 2020 lockdown created a socialization gap in Gen Z, particularly between the ages of 20 and 24, in an interview with CNBC Make It.
“You’ve got a lot of young people who missed out on years of in person, education, work experience, work readiness, soft skills, and who now find themselves adults and in a very difficult job market, and also in a recruitment landscape that has completely changed over the years,” Leonard said.
Soft skills like learning to lead a team, collaboration, following instructions are “so core to being work-ready,” and Gen Z “missed out.”
Many young people weren’t forced to get out of their comfort zone at home, which includes talking to strangers, showing up on time for school or work, she added.
MP Milburn explained that young people can’t be blamed for not being ready to work and said opportunities…
Read More: Gen Z isn’t ‘work-ready’ – why a million young brits are unemployed