Member

This is not happening in a healthy labour market. The latest ONS figures show that the overall UK unemployment rate was 5.2% in October to December 2025. As we heard in the debate on the previous subject, the OBR is forecasting that to rise to 7%. For 16 to 24 year-olds, the unemployment rate was 16.1%, according to the latest ONS series. That is now higher than the EU average. The latest ONS NEET release shows that 957,000 young people aged 16 to 24 are not in education, employment or training, including 411,000 who are unemployed and 547,000 who are economically inactive.