Summary: The UK’s NEET rate for 16 to 24-year-olds has hit its highest level since 2020. Many cite disability or long-term sickness as a barrier, with mental health a dominant factor. HR leaders must resist media-driven stereotypes about younger workers, recognise the structural disadvantages this generation has faced and take practical steps to build more inclusive pipelines.
Figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) mark a critical turning point for the UK labour market. Almost one million young people in the UK – about one in eight aged 16–24 – are now not in education, employment or training (NEET).
This is the highest level since 2020, heightening government concerns about the rate at which young people are joining the labour market.
For HR leaders, employers and policymakers, these numbers are more than statistics. They signal a long-term threat to talent pipelines, future skills and the sustainability of the UK workforce.
Figures show that over one-quarter of NEET young people report disability or long-term sickness as a barrier to getting into work.
This aligns with wider evidence showing that rising youth inactivity since 2021 has been strongly driven by ill health, especially mental health.
A generation shaped by turbulence
Those aged 16 to 24 face a combination of disruptive conditions. A pandemic during formative life stages, fluctuating education delivery, cost of living pressures, housing insecurity and an increasingly precarious job market.
For disabled young people and those with long-term conditions, there are often the additional disadvantages of having come through a non-inclusive education system with a lack of inclusive teaching methods, inappropriate school placements or poor access to assistive technology to help them learn and communicate.
BDF Member organisations report that young disabled people transitioning from education are already burnt out. They are exhausted by systems that didn’t effectively meet their learning or support needs or help them prepare for the workplace.
This is not a generational issue so much as a communication and confidence gap
Managers face a confidence gap, not a generational one
Managers have told us they feel unsure about how to relate to young people or support them effectively.
Yet this is not a generational issue so much as a communication and confidence gap. This reflects how many managers also tell us they feel about talking about disability.
The media often presents a negative image of young workers as stubborn, unskilled, entitled, overly political and unwilling to compromise.
These labels seep into workplace culture and can shape how both recruiters and coworkers anticipate a young person will behave.
Some of these generalisations might seem insignificant. But they echo the patterns of stereotyping that workplace equality law is designed to prevent.
If applied to any other protected group, such assumptions would rightly be called out.
We have seen greater recognition of the value of older workers in recent years. We need the same for young people.
The need for targeted support
The government has recently announced a series of new incentives. This includes the Youth Guarantee, where businesses will receive £3,000 for every young person they hire (aged 18 to 24) who has been on Universal Credit and looking for work for six months. There is also a £2,000 apprenticeship incentive for SMEs hiring 16 to 24-year-olds.
Many young people are expected to benefit. However, unless designed specifically with the needs of disabled young people in mind, this is unlikely to improve the employment rates of disabled people. Especially while vital areas of support, such as the Access to Work scheme, continue to be under-resourced.
Do not allow the negative portrayal of young people to affect your decision makin
What HR and talent teams can do
Approach all candidates and workers with the same inclusive values
Do not allow the negative portrayal of young people to affect your decision making and behaviours. Inclusive values and reliance on fact over assumption must be actively applied to every candidate and employee, regardless of age or disability.
Know how young people perceive you as an employer
Engage with local young people’s groups, disability or mental health groups working with young people or colleges that run vocational courses relevant to your sector to understand how young people perceive you as an employer.
Find out if they would consider you as a future employer. If they wouldn’t, why not? How can you change this?
Seek opportunities with schools and further education colleges
Young people may not know what their options are. Your organisation taking part in local open days, work experience opportunities, and ‘week in the life of’ talks can help all young people understand the opportunities available.
Be as flexible as possible with candidates
Difficulties within the jobs market mean that young people may be applying for opportunities beyond what they have trained for or studied.
Disabled young people may face the additional barriers of having gaps in their educational experience.
Consider letting candidates make their application in different ways to allow for this. Making a short video, coming to see you in person or having a call, for example. Offer to explain the assessment process to candidates.
Create the culture, communicate the culture
Young people are being influenced by an unfiltered range of people they don’t know more than ever before via social media.
How to speak and act in a professional workplace is not automatic knowledge. State the culture of your organisation upfront and how they can be part of that.
Key takeaways
1. Stereotypes about young workers are just as damaging as any other kind: Negative media narratives about young workers are shaping hiring decisions in ways that mirror the bias workplace equality law exists to prevent. Leaders need to apply the same scrutiny to assumptions about age as they would to any other protected characteristic.
2. The manager confidence gap is the real problem: Many managers feel ill-equipped to support younger or disabled workers. But this is a skills and communication issue, not a generational one.
3. Rethink your application process: Rigid application processes screen out candidates who may have gaps caused by health, disability or disrupted education. Offering alternative formats levels the playing field without lowering the bar.
4. Your culture needs to be explicit, not assumed: Younger workers are navigating professional norms without the informal guidance previous generations had. Clearly articulating expected behaviours and values helps everyone, and sets new starters up to succeed.
If you found this article interesting, here’s your next read: Stop asking why Gen Z are difficult and start asking what they are showing you
