The UK’s youth job market has deteriorated sharply, with young people accounting for over half of the total rise in unemployment since mid-2022, says the latest PwC’s Youth Employment Index.
Youth inactivity has also climbed to new highs, with three million young peole now out of the labour force – that’s more than any other working-age group. It means the youth unemployment rate has hit 15%. Ii was 11% three years ago, and now is rising fastest than anywhere else in the G7.
PwC’s senior economist, Jake Finney, says modelling currently shows no statistically significant relationship between AI adoption and youth unemployment. This is, he says, because young people tend to start their working lives in retail and hospitality, which have lower AI exposure.
However, there are signs that the retail industry is shrinking, and graduate hiring is falling fast, so two traditional routes into the world of work could be closing.
