The number of young people not in education, employment or training has surpassed one million for the first time, according to official data published this week.
The Office for National Statistics recorded 1,012,000 young people aged between 16 and 24 out of work during the first three months of 2026.
This marks a significant rise from 957,000 in December 2025, with the figure now breaching the symbolic one million threshold for the first time.
Former health secretary Alan Milburn has warned the number could climb as high as 1.25 million within five years, according to a review he is set to publish on Thursday.
Milburn, who served as health secretary under Tony Blair, will warn that Britain risks creating a “lost generation” of young people without adequate support into work.
He argues the country faces a “generational fault line” unless it confronts what he described as a whole-system failure, particularly around welfare.
His review found that for every £1 the Department for Work and Pensions spends on employment support for young people, around £25 is spent on benefits.
Milburn said this imbalance reflected a welfare state “exacerbating inactivity” rather than building the capability needed to get young people into employment.
He called for a shift toward what he described as a “working state,” arguing that new programmes layered on top of a broken system could not work.
“We are at risk of a lost generation,” he is expected to say at the launch of the report on Thursday.
“The first rung of the career ladder has thinned. For too many young people it is now simply out of reach. That places them in a hopeless Catch-22 where employers ask for work experience but the opportunities for young people to gain it have narrowed or gone.”
The review firmly rejected suggestions that young people are unwilling to work, with 84 per cent of Neets surveyed saying they wanted a job or training.
The report pointed to a labour market that has progressively closed off entry points, with 1.6 million fewer low and medium-skilled jobs existing in the economy than in previous decades.
Apprenticeship starts among young people have also fallen 35 per cent over the last decade, while Milburn highlighted the decline of Saturday jobs and lower vacancy levels across the hospitality sector.
Work and pensions secretary Pat McFadden said the report was commissioned to understand the factors driving youth unemployment and pledged further action.
He said: “We know there is more to do. I will work across government and with employers, charities and young people to drive real change, so more young people are earning or learning, not left behind.”
Marks and Spencer chief executive Stuart Machin described the findings as “shocking but not surprising,” saying a Saturday job in retail had changed his own life and that there remained “a chance” to provide a similar path to every young person.
Several business executives have blamed the Labour government directly for deepening the Neets crisis in recent weeks.
Next boss Lord Simon Wolfson said Rachel Reeves’ tax rises had squeezed entry-level jobs, while Phones 4u founder John Caudwell warned AI would hit the jobs market “like a tsunami.”
Caudwell also said increases to the minimum wage and new red tape had already made youth unemployment “dreadful,” adding to growing pressure on the government to act.