Jack, Tower Hamlets Socialist Party
Young people today face a labour market increasingly unable or unwilling to provide them with a route into work. Online adverts for so-called ‘starter jobs’ – jobs aimed at people who have never worked before – have almost halved over the past decade, falling from an average of 139,300 vacancies per week in 2016-17 to just 71,100 in 2025-26. The consequences are clear: in the final months of 2025, there were three times as many young people not in education, employment or training as there were advertised entry-level jobs. Far from being a problem of motivation or skills, youth unemployment increasingly reflects an economy that offers fewer opportunities while demanding more experience from those who have never been given the chance to gain it.
As a recent graduate looking for work, I found the job market extremely difficult to break into. Many jobs advertised as entry-level still demand significant amounts of previous experience, creating barriers for those trying to get started. When applying for jobs, even receiving a response is rare. With relatively few, genuine entry-level opportunities available, competition becomes intense, and candidates with far more experience often end up securing these positions instead. From speaking to others my age, this does not seem like an isolated experience, but a common struggle shared across an entire generation entering the workforce.
With government proposals placing young people on Universal Credit into temporary training programmes where they receive only benefits and no guarantee of work afterwards, it becomes clear that the rotten capitalist system has no real answer to the crisis of youth unemployment, only serving the interests of the super-rich bosses.
To end this crisis, we need a £15-an-hour minimum wage for all as a step towards a real living wage, mass public investment in jobs and public services while sharing out the work, and the creation of training schemes that come with guaranteed jobs at the end.
