Britain’s Gen Zers Aren’t Lost — Yet
The UK government urgently needs to get more young people into the work force.
Uncollected household waste and rubbish blights the corner of a street as Birmingham council refuse collectors continue their strike.
Photographer: Christopher Furlong/Getty Images EuropeIt’s the prerogative of older generations to bemoan the fecklessness of youth. One’s struggles to find a place in the world acquire a tinge of heroism and inevitability in the mirror of the receding past. If today’s young people would only learn to forgo the avocado toast and knuckle down like we did, their eventual success would be assured. Or so our experience seems to say.
For this reason, the judgments of society’s more seasoned members about their juniors should be treated with caution. We are unreliable narrators of national decline. Nevertheless, it is clear that something alarming is going on with many of Britain’s younger people — specifically Generation Z, the group born between 1997 and about 2012. The number of inactive 16- to 24-year-olds, known by the unlovely acronym NEET — for “not in education, employment or training” — has jumped by more than 300,000 since 2021 to reach almost 1 million, or close to one in seven. The British Chambers of Commerce warn of a “lost generation” that threatens to hurt businesses and the economy.