Britain Risks Creating a Lost Generation

Britain’s anxious young people are making the country nervous. Rising youth unemployment has refocused attention on a cohort of almost 1 million who don’t have jobs and aren’t studying or training. Alan Milburn, a former Labour health secretary who’s leading a review for the government, says the system isn’t working and radical change is needed to prevent creating a lost generation. The country should learn from European peers that have already tackled the problem — and without delay. The window for action is closing.

The unemployment rate among 16- to 24-year-olds rose to 16.1% at the end of last year, the highest in more than a decade and surpassing the European Union average for the first time since at least the turn of the millennium, according to official figures. There was a further signal of the narrowing opportunities for young people when online job-search site Adzuna reported that graduate job vacancies fell to a record low of under 10,000 in January. But labor-market conditions are only part of the challenge.