Member

The language the Government have used is revealing. They say they hope this programme will create or support 60,000 opportunities. “Hope” is the key word, so calling it a youth jobs guarantee is frankly misleading. Even worse, the scale is nowhere near enough. ONS data for January 2026 showed that the number of payrolled employees was 30.3 million, which was down 0.4% on the year. That is the equivalent of 134,000 fewer employees than in January 2025—so not even on their optimistic assumptions would this scheme make up for the jobs already lost.