THE rapid rise in joblessness amongst the UK’s youth has pushed Britain to an unwanted milestone. For the first time in a quarter of a century, the UK now has a higher youth unemployment rate than the European Union!
Figures from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development show unemployment among 16 to 24 year olds climbed to 15.3 per cent in the three months to September.
That puts Britain above the EU average of 15 per cent. Comparable records stretch back to 2000, and this is the first occasion the UK has been worse.
Bank of England rate setter Catherine Mann claimed ‘large rises’ in the minimum wage were a major factor behind the deterioration. She argued that ‘substantial’ increases introduced under Conservative governments and continued by Labour had ‘manifested in unemployment’ among younger workers.
Mann, who previously advised former US president George HW Bush and now sits on the rate setting committee at the Bank of England, is not alone in raising concerns.
A growing number of economists, along with several left leaning think tanks, believe recent above inflation increases in the minimum wage are putting pressure on the labour market. They want to see wage cuts!
Even Angela Rayner has acknowledged the risk to young workers. The former deputy prime minister, who is widely tipped to be considering a future challenge to Keir Starmer, said last week that a policy she has long supported now presents a ‘challenge’ for employers trying to hire. Labour has promised to remove what it calls discriminatory age bands by phasing out the lower youth rate that has been in place since the minimum wage system began in 1999.
Changes have already been made. In April 2024, then Chancellor Jeremy Hunt removed the lower rate for 21 and 22 year olds. Since then, ministers have significantly reduced the gap between younger and older workers through a series of sizeable uplifts.
Data from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development indicate that 150,000 more young people have become unemployed since Labour entered government. That takes the total number of jobless 16 to 24 year olds to 729,000.
Britain is not only above the EU average, the rate is now higher than in Hungary, Slovenia and Poland, and is close to overtaking Greece, where youth unemployment reached 60.6 per cent in the aftermath of the eurozone crisis.
Andrew Griffith, the shadow business secretary, said: ‘For decades one of Europe’s epic failures was its high levels of youth unemployment. So it’s a complete disaster that even before the worst of their policies have fully hit, Labour have made the UK worse than Europe on youth unemployment.’
Louise Murphy from the Resolution Foundation urged ministers to tread very carefully, saying: ‘When you look at some countries with very high rates of youth employment, places like Netherlands, Denmark, other European countries, it’s quite normal to have lower youth minimum wage rates compared to the adult rates.’
A government spokesman said: ‘Youth unemployment has been on the rise since 2022, and we are taking firm action to get young people into good jobs and drive growth in every part of the country.’
Europe must be ready to fight to protect its people, values and way of life, Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer told world leaders on Saturday.
Speaking at the Munich Security Conference, Starmer also called for deeper links and cooperation, including economic ties, between the UK and EU.
The PM stressed the continent must ‘stand on its own two feet’ when it comes to defence commitments.
During his speech, Starmer also said the UK would deploy its carrier strike group to the Arctic and High North as part of efforts to bolster security against Russian threats.
Starmer said the US, Canada and other NATO allies would also join the initiative to combat Russian threats in the region.
Delivering her speech prior to the PM, EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen described Starmer as an ‘unflinching ally and friend’, and said both the EU and UK faced the threat of ‘outside forces trying to weaken our union from within’.
In fact, the only way out of the deepening capitalist crisis is through building up and expanding the number of sections of the International Committee of the Fourth International and carrying out the World Socialist Revolution, consigning the capitalist system to the ‘dustbin of history’ by bringing in and developing a socialist society whose maxim will be ‘from each according to their ability to each according to their need’.
Carrying out the World Socialist Revolution is the only way out of the desperate crisis of world capitalism.
