Why is unemployment so stubbornly high among young men?

The decline in youth unemployment in Britain is a notable policy success, but hides a troubling failure: while young women have been flying, the position of young men has barely changed. In fact, it might have deteriorated.

The problem is identified in a report, titled “Not Working”, which is published today by the Resolution Foundation with the support of the Health Foundation.

The researchers found that youth unemployment fell by 300,000 to 800,000 between 1995 and 2021, which is a win whichever way you look at it.

However, almost all of the decline (280,000) was accounted for by young women. This was largely achieved through falling rates of young parenthood, as well as an increase in the number of women choosing, and able, to combine parenting with work.

That is another bang-up result, something to be applauded.

But it does raise the question of what is happening to their male peers, and why only 20,000 more of them are in work compared with 1995 at a time when jobs are, in theory, going begging.

Here’s where another striking finding comes into play. There has been a stark change in the nature of youth joblessness compared with the situation in the 1990s.

Whereas in those days, jobless young men would typically have been classified as unemployed and seeking work, now they’re much more like to be labelled “economically inactive” – neither in work nor seeking it.

This is hugely problematic, because economically inactive young people are much less likely than unemployed young people to move into work or study. Once they fall into this position, they are likely to get stuck in it.

The reasons for this are deeply troubling. The report finds that chief cause is long-term sickness or disability, which accounts for three quarters of the rise in inactivity among young men.

This epidemic of ill health often has poor mental health at its core. The number of young men – and young women – with a “common mental health disorder” has risen sharply in recent years.

This is both an economic and a social tragedy, especially given that there are are effective treatment options for mental health conditions. What’s lacking is their availability.

Mental health problems often develop in childhood or adolescence. The trouble is, when treatment is sought, sufferers are frequently left in a near permanent holding pattern by a sclerotic and failing system that gets about 70p out of every £100 the NHS spends. So the problems persist into adulthood. And the longer they go untreated, the worse, and more entrenched, they become.

Clearly this needs to be addressed.

But there’s another problem, even if these young people can be helped back into the labour market.

The sort of education and/or training they will need is increasingly hard to find. The continued failure to invest in adult education and apprenticeships is at the root of this.

Another report out today, this time from the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS), finds that, even with the additional £900m committed to it in the most recent spending review, total spending on adult education and apprenticeships will still be 25 per cent lower in 2024-25 compared with 2010-11.

There is also a problem with the nature of the apprenticeships available. The number of higher apprenticeships – which include degree apprenticeships – has rocketed from just a few hundred starts in 2010 to almost 100,000 in 2020.

But while that is obviously welcome, the number of apprenticeship opportunities at lower levels has been drying up. In 2020, fewer than 50,000 adults began at the lowest level – intermediate apprenticeships – compared with 200,000 a decade earlier.

These are just the sort of apprenticeships that are needed to address the issue of “econocomic inactivity” among young people, especially young men, assuming they can secure the treatment they need to get back into the labour market.

Conservative think tanks have tended to see a potential “wedge” issue in the way young men are being failed, chiefly through highlighting the plight of young white men.

In fact, per Resolution, while unemployment among young men from Black, Bangladeshi and Pakistani backgrounds has fallen, by 9, 13 and 10 percentage points respectively, they are still more likely to be jobless than those from white or Indian backgrounds.

And what goes unmentioned by the right is the fact that it is the failure by successive Conservative governments to invest in education and training that is stopping young men – regardless of their racial background – from improving their lot.

It goes without saying that the government will not achieve what the IFS says are its “high ambitions to improve technical education and adult skills in order to level up poorer areas of the country” unless that changes.

These, however, are the sort of problems that, in addition to funding, require carefully thought out policymaking, serious work, and commitment across government.

That’s not something the current administration has shown much sign of having an aptitude for.

Perhaps it’s time to find room in the budget for some adult education for ministers?