Rachel Reeves was accused of “killing opportunities for the next generation” as new figures showed nearly a million young people wake up in Britain every morning with nothing to do and nowhere to go. The number of 16 to 24 year olds not in education, employment or training, known as NEETs, has risen since the last election to 957,459 young people in December 2025.

This up from 921,198 in the three months to June 2024, before the election, and has increased by over 11,000 since September last year. It means one in eight of all people aged 16 to 24 years are NEETs. Conservatives accused Labour of presiding over record levels of youth unemployment, the lowest graduate recruitment levels ever and a conveyor belt of young people going straight from education to welfare – with 700,000 graduates now on benefits.

Helen Whately, Shadow Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, said: “Young people are doing everything we ask of them, studying hard, taking on debt, trying to build a future, yet nearly a million young people are completely trapped.

“The Government is killing opportunities for the next generation, but Conservatives have seen what’s happening and have a plan. Our New Deal for Young People will abolish real interest rates on Plan 2 student loans, end low-value “debt-trap” degrees, double apprenticeships, and give young people a £5,000 tax cut – our First Job Bonus – to help them save for a first home.”

Andrew Griffith, Shadow Secretary of State for Business and Trade, said: “Labour’s Jobs Tax, economic uncertainty and their red tape Employment Rights Bill are holding back hiring and creating a jobless generation. Starmer would rather duck the fight with their own backbenchers than fix a worklessness crisis that is bleeding the economy dry.

“Labour will not take the tough decisions needed to reward work and back business, forcing more people into unemployment, scuppering the wider economy.”

Conservatives have set out what they call a New Deal for Young People, which includes abolish above-inflation interest rates on Plan 2 student loans, to reduce the amount many graduates will have to pay; helping 100,000 more young people into apprenticeships each year by lifting the cap on funding for 18-to21-year-olds, and a “first Job Bonus”, where the first £5,000 of National Insurance paid by any British citizen in their first full-time job will go into a personal savings account for a house deposit or future savings.

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David Freeman, joint head of the labour market division at the Office for National Statistics, said: “The final quarter of 2025 saw a slight increase in the number of young people not in employment, education and training compared to the previous quarter.

“This was driven by higher unemployment, with more young people actively looking for work.”

Last year, the Chancellor Rachel Reeves announced her “youth guarantee”, committing to offer guaranteed paid work for every eligible young person who has been out of education on work for 18 months.

Sam Atwell, Policy and Research Manager, Healthy Lives at the Health Foundation, said: “The continued rise of young people not in education, employment or training should be a wake‑up call. Not working or learning can have profound consequences for young people’s current and future health, earnings and life opportunities.

“Poor health is increasingly a factor behind young people not in work or education. This creates a cycle that is hard to break: ill‑health makes it harder to participate, and not earning or learning for long periods can worsen mental and physical health over time.”